| Official name | Hastings, Nebraska |
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| Settlement type | City |
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| Nickname | Queen City of the Plains |
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| Image seal | |
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| Image map | Adams_County_Nebraska_Incorporated_and_Unincorporated_areas_Hastings_Highlighted.svg |
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| Mapsize | 250px |
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| Map caption | Location of Hastings, Nebraska |
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| Map caption1 | |
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| Subdivision type | Country |
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| Subdivision name | United States |
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| Subdivision type1 | State |
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| Subdivision name1 | Nebraska |
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| Subdivision type2 | County |
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| Subdivision name2 | Adams |
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| Leader title | Mayor |
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| Leader name | Vern Powers |
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| Established date | |
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| Unit pref | Imperial |
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| Area total km2 | 25.8 |
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| Area land km2 | 25.5 |
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| Area water km2 | 0.3 |
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| Area total sq mi | 10.0 |
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| Area land sq mi | 9.8 |
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| Area water sq mi | 0.1 |
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| Population as of | 2000 |
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| Population total | 24064 |
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| Population density km2 | 945.4 |
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| Population density sq mi | 2448.5 |
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| Timezone | Central (CST) |
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| Utc offset | -6 |
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| Timezone dst | CDT |
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| Utc offset dst | -5 |
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| Elevation m | 587 |
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| Elevation ft | 1926 |
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| Coordinates display | inline,title |
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| Coordinates type | region:US_type:city |
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| Latd | 40 |latm = 35 |lats = 21 |latNS = N |
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| Longd | 98 |longm = 23 |longs = 30 |longEW = W |
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| Postal code type | ZIP codes |
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| Postal code | 68901-68902 |
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| Area code | 402 |
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| Blank name | FIPS code |
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| Blank info | 31-21415 |
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| Blank1 name | GNIS feature ID |
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| Blank1 info | 0829848 |
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Hastings is a city in and the
county seat of
Adams County,
Nebraska,
United States. It is the principal city of the Hastings, Nebraska
Micropolitan Statistical Area, which consists of Adams and
Clay counties. The population was 24,064 at the
2000 census. It is known as the town where
Kool-Aid was invented by
Edwin Perkins in 1927, and celebrates that event with
Kool-Aid Days the second weekend of every August. Hastings is also known for
Fisher Fountain, and during
World War II operated the largest
Naval Ammunition Depot in the United States. A
National Weather Service Forecast Office is located there, serving central and south-central Nebraska and six counties in north-central
Kansas. On June 24, 2007, Hastings won Yahoo's Greenest City in America competition.
History
Hastings was founded in 1872 at the intersection of the
Burlington and Missouri River Railroad and the
St. Joseph and Denver City Railroad. It was named for Colonel D.T. Hastings of the
St. Joseph and Grand Island Railroad, which built a line from Hastings to
Grand Island. The area was previously open plain: the
Donner party passed through on its way to
California in 1846 and a pioneer cemetery marker in Hastings bears an inscription taken from Tamsen Donner's journal: "The country between the Blue and the
Platte is beautiful beyond compare. Never have I seen so varied a country so suitable to cultivation." In the 1870s, railroads lured European immigrants to the new state of Nebraska with advertisements. Hastings' first settlers were English, from
Liverpool, and were quickly joined by other English, Irish, Germans, Danes, and
Germans from Russia.
Between 1872 and 1880, when the population had grown to 2,800, Hastings was a boomtown. Settlers first built sod houses, dugouts, and shanties, then houses and stores. The city was incorporated in April 1874, and in September 1878, after a five-year Great County Seat War, the county seat was transferred to Hastings from Juniata. However, a fire in 1879 destroyed 33 buildings downtown. The city was rebuilt between 1880 and 1890 in fireproof materials and in a more planned fashion, with characteristically ornate Victorian buildings, many designed by Charles C. Rittenhouse, the first practicing architect in Adams County and also mayor for ten years. Thanks to the railroads, the city enjoyed great prosperity during the Gilded Age. The population grew to 13,500. This period of expansion ended with the drought and agricultural depression of the 1890s; the town's population fell to 7,000 and would not reach 15,000 until 1930.
Hastings saw renewed growth from 1900 to 1930, which is reflected by buildings in the Craftsman, Prairie, Colonial Revival, and American Foursquare styles. The leading Arts and Crafts architect was Claude W. Way. and all the paving bricks. During this period, the city also became known as the cigar-making capital of Nebraska. The largest cigar factory, the Kipp Cigar Company, was by 1921 hand-rolling one-fifth of all cigars produced in Nebraska; in 1925 it produced half, a total of 10 million. Cigars lost their popularity to cigarettes between the two World Wars, and in the 1930s the Great Depression again brought the town's expansion to a halt.
In 1942, the Naval Ammunition Depot was constructed, initiating explosive growth: Hastings' population grew from 15,000 to 23,000 in under a year and there was a critical shortage of housing, which prompted both alteration of existing housing stock and rapid construction of new neighborhoods. Once World War II ended, staff was reduced at the ammunition depot, bringing Hastings' last growth period to an end in 1950, and the depot eventually closed.
Today, Heartwell Park and Central Hastings, two of the oldest neighborhoods, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Hastings Symphony Orchestra performs in the Chautauqua Pavilion, built in 1907 and on the National Register of Historic Places, while the Hastings Community Theatre performs in the auditorium of the former Spencer Park School, built during the housing shortage of the 1940s. The city has adapted several of its historic buildings to new uses. Central Community College is housed in buildings of the former Naval Ammunition Depot. Lincoln Elementary School, built in 1912, is now the police headquarters. The Clarke Hotel, built in 1914 and also on the National Register of Historic Places, is now the Kensington, a home for senior citizens. Spencer Park, an 840-unit "village" built to house workers in the 1940s, is now Good Samaritan Retirement Village.
Fisher Fountain was renovated in 1982 but was then dynamited by vandals in 1984. Its destruction aroused a strong community response. $63,000 was raised to rebuild it, and it was rededicated on Mother's Day in 1985.
Hastings Museum
The Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History is in an art deco building funded by $75,000 from the
Works Progress Administration and completed in 1939.
Albert Brooking, who founded the museum in 1926 and provided it with many exhibits, including Indian relics, fossils, and the largest private collection of mounted birds in the US, was buried in the basement in 1946. The museum currently houses the Lied Super Screen Theatre, McDonald Planetarium, and local and regional exhibits including the largest diorama of
whooping and
Sandhill cranes in the world. The
Adams County Historical Society is located within the museum.
Naval Ammunition Depot
The Naval Ammunition Depot, constructed on 49,000 acres southeast of Hastings and in operation from 1942 to 1946, was the largest United States
World War II naval munitions plant, emcompassing over 2,200 structures valued at $71 million. In 1945 it employed 6,692 civilians in addition to 125 officers and 1,800 enlistees. It was reactivated in the
Korean War but decommissioned between 1958 and 1966, and the site now houses a US Department of Agriculture research station, training facilities for the National Guard and Reserves, an industrial park, Central Community College, and a golf course.
Parks and recreation
Hastings has twenty parks and recreational facilities throughout the city. The city offers recreational and leisure programs and operates the Aquacourt Water Park, the City Auditorium, Lake Hastings, Chautauqua Pavilion, Duncan Field, the Pioneer Spirit Trail, Smith Softball Complex, Brickyard Park Amphitheater, and Heartwell Lake.
Media
The principal newspaper in Hastings is the
Hastings Tribune, published six days a week.
Notable natives and residents
Edwin Perkins, inventor of Kool-Aid
Charles Henry Dietrich, Governor of Nebraska and U.S. Senator, and his wife Margretta, woman's suffrage leader
Tom Osborne, former University of Nebraska football coach and Congressman
Rick Sheehy, Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska
Fred A. Seaton, U.S. Secretary of the Interior 1956-61.
Rollin Kirby, political cartoonistReferences
Sources
Elizabeth Spilinek, John B Chrise, Keith Enockson, Brett Erickson. Connections to the Past: The Connected History of Hastings, Nebraska as Told Through its Historic Architecture. Video. Adams County Historical Society, 2007. OCLC 237049053
External links
City of Hastings, NE
Hastings Economic Development Corporation
Visit Hastings Nebraska!
Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History
Hastings Tribune
See also
Hastings (Amtrak station)
National Register of Historic Places listings in Adams County, Nebraska
Category:Adams County, Nebraska
Category:Cities in Nebraska
Category:Hastings micropolitan area
Category:County seats in Nebraska
