The West 2nd Street Residential Historic District, just west between Eddy and Forest streets, shows the diversity of house styles built between 1857 and 1890 in a neighborhood that stood within a short walk of Hastings's commercial and industrial center. Its location offered easy access for wealthy merchants, industrialists, and their employees, even as the area grew within sight and smell of a large riverfront sawmill, lumberyard, and grain elevator. Among its most prominent buildings are John F. Norrish's octagon-shaped house, built in 1857, and the neighboring Italian Villa at 319 West 2nd Street, built in 1861 by John L. Thorne. Norrish and Thorne, both English immigrants, were business partners in a dry goods store at 209 East 2nd Street. To the south, an area called Swede Hill housed working-class residents who worked in mills and warehouses, on the railroad, or as butchers, store clerks, and domestic servants. Together these neighborhoods reflect the full range of families, social standing, and daily work that shaped Hastings during the last half of the 19th century.