The Heights: 19th Street Shops & Beer Trail

When the Omaha developers platted Houston Heights in the 1890s, they set aside a commercial strip along 19th Street so their new suburb would have somewhere to shop. More than a century later, 19th Street is still the neighborhood's Main Street — a walkable run of century-old storefronts filled with vintage clothing, antiques, folk-art galleries, toy shops, boutiques, and coffee bars, capped at the ends by the icehouses and beer gardens that give the Heights its laid-back drinking culture. This stroll works the historic strip and the blocks just off it, blending the shops with a couple of neighborhood watering holes. Note the old brick facades and transom windows above the shop doors — many of these buildings date to the early 1900s, when the Heights was its own small city. Take your time, poke into a store or two, and end with a cold one.