The John G. Neihardt Center is located on the property occupied by John Neihardt when he lived and worked in Bancroft, Nebraska. In the early 1960s, the house in which he lived no longer existed; the only structure remaining on the property was a small outbuilding used by Neihardt as a study. The history of the Center as it exists today began with the John G. Neihardt Study Restoration Project, founded in 1965 by Evelyn Vogt. The purpose of this project was to preserve the one-room study building. The Study Restoration Project was incorporated in 1967 as the John G. Neihardt Foundation for the purpose of constructing a building to house a museum, library and research facility to preserve Neihardt's works and effects. In 1974, State Senator Blair Richendifer of Walthill introduced into the Nebraska Legislature L.B. 855 that appropriated the "sum of two hundred thousand dollars for the purpose of constructing the John G. Neihardt Foundation." The Center, dedicated August 1, 1976, was designed by the architectural firm of Clark, Enersen, Hamersky, Schlaebitz, Burroughs & Thomsen. The primary contractor for the construction was Larson & Jipp.
