Hastings College Campus Historic District

The campus had been planned before. In 1916 the college asked Hastings architect C. W. Way for a plan, the first to imagine a unified quadrangle between Seventh and Ninth streets, crossed by a circle drive, in Gothic style. In 1919 it turned to the Illinois firm of Miller, Fullenweider and Dowling for a Collegiate Gothic rebuilding, but the Depression ended that plan, and only the ground floor of Taylor Hall was finished, in 1921. After the war the Lincoln firm Davis and Wilson designed the chapel and Weyer and Fuhr halls in Georgian Revival and mid-century modern dress.

What the plaque says

Hastings College Campus Historic District In 1944, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Servicemen's Readjustment Act, known as the G.I. Bill of Rights. This ushered in sweeping changes to America's colleges and universities by paying for the tuition of World War II veterans and their spouses. With higher education more accessible, college enroll- ment nearly doubled nationwide. Hastings College campus's physical development is representative of its postwar increase in enrollment. At Hastings College, enrollment doubled from 524 students in 1943 to 1,138 in 1946. Roughly half of students enrolled in 1946 were using the G.I. Bill. Such a large increase in the student population required a building campaign that expanded or modified much of the prewar campus fabric. Wooden structures were moved in from the nearby Naval Ammunition Depot to temporarily accommodate the increased enrollment. Eventually these were replaced by new permanent buildings. A number of buildings that make up the college's modern configuration were built as a direct response to the effects of the G.I. Bill, including the French Memorial Chapel in 1948, Weyer Hall in 1950, and Fuhr Hall in 1956. Hastings College History Nebraska, 2020

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Stuhr Museum of the Prairie Pioneer — 20 mi
  Edward Durell Stone's island pavilion in Grand Island and an 1890s railroad town of moved buildings, among them the cottage where Henry Fonda was born in 1905.

More markers nearby

• McCormick Hall — steps away
• Heartwell Park Historic District — 0.3 mi
• Central Hastings Historic District — 0.9 mi
• Hastings Brickyard Park — 2.0 mi