Celebrating 30 Years

Heartland Trust Company turns 30 this year. As we celebrate this milestone, we’ll include a feature on one of our old locations in each quarterly newsletter. 

Steve Halverson, chairman of the board and former president, was approved for a charter by the North Dakota Department of Financial Institutions in August 1989 to start an independent trust company. Office space for the upstart trust company was found in the same building as Busy Bubbles Car Wash & Laundromat at 2102 12th Street North in Fargo. Steve’s father, Hans Halverson, owned the building and let Steve use the space for several months while he was getting everything ready. The charter was officially granted on January 18, 1990. Doors officially opened for Heartland Trust Company on January 23, 1990, and as Steve likes to add, “the door didn’t open, and the phone didn’t ring.”

Busy Bubbles Laundromat in 2007. Photo courtesy of Google Maps

Heartland Trust was only open in this location for a short time before moving to its second location in downtown Fargo. Tune in next quarter to find out more.

An update on our first location: Last summer the building that formerly housed Busy Bubbles (more recently Royal Laundry) was demolished and a new office was constructed. The new tenant is a charitable organization called Down Home, which helps those transitioning from homelessness into housing. Down Home is currently occupying its new space, and construction is ongoing on the upper portion of the building.

Down Home under construction in January 2020. Photo courtesy of HTC.