Nebraska Loan and Trust Company

Cities and agricultural areas need capital to finance growth.
Nebraska Loan and Trust Company, organized in 1882 with James B. Heartwell as
need in Hastings by providing a means for Eastern Capitalists to invest in Nebraska
real estate mortgages. In 1883-84 they erected a large, ornate, L-shaped Victorian
Italiante structure at Second and Lincoln. The building which cost $35,000,
was designed by C.C. Rittenhouse, and has three stories at the end sections
and two stories above an elevated, rusticated stone basement, a corner section.
The stone trimmed brick walls are topped by a pressed-metal parapet. The primary
entrance was originally located in the beveled corner, above street level, and
reached by cast-iron staircases. About 1915 it was moved, along with its eclectic
stone frontispiece, to the south side of the building. One of the original cast-iron
stone fronts remains on the Lincoln Avenue side of the building. This building
was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.