Hastings College has placed two historic markers on campus to acknowledge the Hastings College Historic District and McCormick Hall, the first historic building on campus.
The Historic District designation was largely undertaken by Brian Whetstone ‘18 while he was a student. Thanks to Whetstone’s efforts, many College buildings were added by the National Park Service to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) as a local historic district. (For more information on Whetstones’s efforts to create the Hastings College Historic District, click here).
When the project began in 2016, the Hastings College Board of Trustees asked Whetstone if he could prepare and pursue historic designation for Weyer Hall, a residence hall built in 1950.
During that process, the scope of the project expanded after the Nebraska State Historic Preservation Office suggested the College pursue the nomination for a broader portion of campus, instead of just one building.
The Hastings College Historic District designation includes 12 buildings on campus for their historical significance in the College’s post World War II growth. To acknowledge the College’s Historic District, one marker has been placed in front of the Daugherty Center.
A second marker was placed in honor of McCormick Hall, which opened in 1884. McCormick Hall was first put on the Historic Register in 1975 but is also part of the Historic District.
Whetstone and Richard Loutzenheiser ‘84, a member of the College’s Board of Trustees, worked together to develop the language for the historic markers, and the Loutzenheiser family funded their creation. Both markers were produced by History Nebraska, the state organization charged with preserving Nebraska history.
“These markers signify the dedication Hastings College has to preserving and honoring the history of the College and this area,” Loutzenheiser said. “We greatly appreciate the work Brian did to obtain the designation, and I’m glad we were able to place these markers on campus.”
Buildings in the Hastings College Historic District include:
- Taylor Hall (1921, 1938 and 1949)
- Calvin H. French memorial Chapel (1950)
- Weyer Hall (1950)
- Fuhr Hall (1956)
- Bronc Hall (1960)
- Hazelrigg Student Union (1962)
- Hurley-MacDonald Hall (1962)
- Perkins Library (1963)
- Altman Hall (1963)
- Kiewit Building, which was previously the art center and Carnegie Library that was joined to the P.L. Johnson Gymnasium (1906, 1925 and 1969).
- Former maintenance building just north of Kiewit (1961)
Hastings College is Nebraska’s premier private college. A four-year residential college that focuses on student academic and extracurricular achievement, Hastings’ student-centered initiatives include providing books, an iPad Pro and a two-week study away experience at no additional cost. A block-style semester schedule allows professors and students to focus on fewer classes at a time and promotes hands-on experiences. Discover more at hastings.edu.
