National Register Listing

Nebraska Loan and Trust Company Building

a.k.a. Clarke-Buchanan Building

2nd St. and Lincoln Ave., Hastings, NE

The Nebraska Loan and Trust Company Building, commonly known as the Clarke-Buchanan Building, is historically significant to Nebraska through its having been the headquarters of two financial institutions that augmented commercial, land, and other types of development in the south-central and western regions of the state. Architecturally, the building is a fine example of the High Victorian Italianate style as employed in commercial buildings. Its exterior is in a good state of preservation and the structure serves as a key corner edifice in the business district of Hastings.

Constructed between 1883-84, the building was erected as office and rental spaces for the Nebraska Loan and Trust Company, a business organized in 1882 with a capital stock of $100,000. This company was mainly concerned with loaning money on first mortgage bonds, but school bonds and municipal securities were concerns also, and the company handled a great amount of money for capitalists in the East. When the corner building at Second and Lincoln was erected, Nebraska Loan and Trust's stock had increased to $500,000, and by 1887 the company employed seventeen clerks in the headquarters, had sixty-four representatives throughout the state, and dealt with between 400-500 correspondents in the East (The Daily GazetteJournal, Hastings, Imperial Edition, March 1887). Company activities took place in the building's central section; the first level of the two sections at each end was rented as retail spaces and floors above these were rented as offices.

The Nebraska Loan and Trust was headed by prominent citizens of Hastings, and the community was most receptive to the company. In 1887 the local Daily Gazette-Journal declared:

The company has been of incalculable benefit to the prosperity of the city of Hastings. It has been instrumental in bringing many persons and enterprises to this city...With such an institution in our midst, it matters not what the effect of troublous times may be on the money market of this or any other section of the country... The building ... is one of the most handsome blocks in the city, being in point of architectural detail and finishing second to none (Imperial Edition, March 1887).

Local significance of the building:
Economics; Architecture

Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.