The Hastings Arts Center celebrated its 10-year anniversary with events ranging from open mic nights to concerts to masses in the old Guardian Angels Church. Founded in 2014 to better house the piano lessons owner Sarah Lockwood was hosting at her home, the center has grown beyond simply a venue for lessons.

“I did not envision owning a church to do so,” said Lockwood.

Lockwood initially toured Guardian Angels Catholic Church in 2012 “on a whim,” she said, but didn’t sign a purchase agreement until 2013, and actually opened the space a year later in 2014. “Everything just fell into our laps basically,” said Lockwood, citing various community members’ support in opening the arts center.

At its inception, “we just had the school in mind,” said Lockwood. Although a previous tenant at the church had arranged for gallery space, it took time for Lockwood to begin hosting exhibitions and concerts: “We weren’t really thinking of doing any of that,” said Lockwood.

Ten years later and the school has grown into its no-longer-new home and is a cornerstone of the Hastings arts scene. To celebrate those years, a weeklong celebration of events played out in the old church.

The 10-year anniversary celebration kicked off on Sunday, April 6 with an open house reunion that featured tours of the 160-year-old building. Many residents “who hadn’t stepped foot” in the building since it was a church came to revisit the space, said Lockwood.

“It was glorious,” she added.

On Tuesday, April 8, for the center’s usual coffee concert, Lockwood played piano alongside pianist and singer Eric Pearson, playing a number of hymns and songs from “At Calvar” to “The Holy City” to “Angels We Have Heard on High.” Alongside them President of the Hastings Historical Society and former Hastings teacher Spencer Johnson spoke to the history of the church, and thereby the origins of Hastings as whole.

After the Treaty of Mendota was signed in 1851, white settlers were able to come to the area. Fur traders like Henry Sibley, Alexander Faribault, and Alexis Bailey speculated on land in the area which would eventually become Hastings. Two years later, the city of Hastings was founded and was incorporated into a town in 1857. The name “Hastings” was selected for the town by random drawing. Hastings was Henry Sibley’s middle name which came from his mother’s maiden name.

When talking about this period, Johnson zeroed in on one question: “Why did Hastings succeed as a town in the 1850s?” Especially as compared to other nearby towns that were similarly expected to grow into large settlements, Hastings succeeded where others did not. Two factors set Hastings apart from other towns in the area according to Johnson: the low riverbanks and the railroad.

Johnson attributes much of Hastings’ early success to the ease of loading and unloading steamboats from the Mississippi. Unlike the nearby town of Nininger, which was also expected to one day become a large town, access to the Mississippi River was much easier, according to Johnson.

Secondly, Johnson cites railroad lines through Hastings as a key factor in its success during its early years. Railroad were able to not only bring new residents to the town, but send flour from the Hastings mill to the Twin Cities and beyond.

Johnson highlighted a bird’s eye view of Hastings from 1867 where the town then ended at Pine Street to the west and 15^th Street to the south. From the bird’s eye view, one can see Guardian Angels Church, built in 1865, only two years old at that time.

“The church was built when we were barely a town,” said Johnson.

Catholics in Hastings petitioned Bishop Joseph Cretin, whose diocese at that time encompassed Minnesota and the Dakotas (and for whom Cretin-Derham Hall High School is named), for lumber to build a church in Hastings.

Despite that first load of lumber being “pilfered by locals at night,” more wood was sent down the Mississippi and what would later be Guardian Angels Church was built in 1865. Its first mass was held on a dirt floor.

Other events throughout the week celebrating the 10-year anniversary included Hops and Hymns hosted by Mo McNeary, an Ecumenical Evening Service led by Fr. Murtaugh and Rev. Paris Pasch, and finally a concert featuring Irish band Brass Lassie that combined traditional tunes with modern horn lines.