McCormick Hall

The college came before the building. A. L. Wigton, editor of the Hastings Journal, called for a college in an editorial of August 19, 1873, and the town took the idea to the Kearney Presbytery that November. Drought, grasshoppers and hard times held it off for nine years. Over the winter of 1881-82, ninety-three men pledged $11,050, a 100-acre tract was bought a mile east of downtown, and the college was incorporated on May 10, 1882. It opened that September 13 with 44 students, who met above the post office downtown.

What the plaque says

McCormick Hall McCormick Hall opened in 1884. It is named for Cyrus McCormick, inventor of the mechanical reaper, who donated $5,000 to help finance construction of the building. The first building on the Hastings College campus, it was the intellectual, social, religious, and academic heart of campus. McCormick first housed dormitories, classrooms, offices, and a small chapel until most of these functions relocated to newer buildings. In 1976 a devastating fire closed the building. Following its renovation, McCormick Hall was reopened in 1982. 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

• Hastings College Campus Historic District — steps away
• Heartwell Park Historic District — 0.3 mi
• Central Hastings Historic District — 0.9 mi
• Hastings Brickyard Park — 2.1 mi