Cities and agricultural areas need capital to finance growth. Nebraska Loan and Trust Company, organized in 1882 with James B. Heartwell as need in Hastings by providing a means for Eastern Capitalists to invest in Nebraska real estate mortgages. In 1883-84 they erected a large, ornate, L-shaped Victorian Italiante structure at Second and Lincoln. The building which cost $35,000, was designed by C.C. Rittenhouse, and has three stories at the end sections and two stories above an elevated, rusticated stone basement, a corner section. The stone trimmed brick walls are topped by a pressed-metal parapet. The primary entrance was originally located in the beveled corner, above street level, and reached by cast-iron staircases. About 1915 it was moved, along with its eclectic stone frontispiece, to the south side of the building. One of the original cast-iron stone fronts remains on the Lincoln Avenue side of the building. This building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978.