Heartwell Park Historic District

James B. Heartwell, the J. B. of the plaque, was a Hastings businessman, president of the Hastings College board of trustees and a state senator from 1886. In 1881 he and E. C. Webster formed the partnership that became the Nebraska Loan and Trust Company, with Heartwell as president. His park was private but open to the public, and a crew of twenty-five men dredged the stream into a lake and planted trees. About 1896 his ventures failed and he moved to California. In 1899 the city bought twenty acres of the park for $2,000.

What the plaque says

Heartwell Park Historic District The Heartwell Park Historic District is significant as an example of a planned residential develop- ment. The Heartwell Park Addition was platted in 1886 by J. B. Heartwell and designed by landscape architect A. N. Carpenter. The idea of a designed residential neighborhood with landscaping and aesthetics was new to Hastings in the 1880s. The park was created in 1886, but the lots on Forest Boulevard lay undeveloped until 1919 and the Lakeside Drive lots were not developed until the 1940s. The Spotts Trust National Endowment For The Arts Nebraska State Historical Society

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 — 0.3 mi
• Hastings College Campus Historic District — 0.3 mi
• Central Hastings Historic District — 0.8 mi
• Hastings Chautauqua Pavilion — 1.9 mi