Fromberg

The old Fromberg Bridge was the crowning achievement of Carbon County's concrete bridge program in the early 20th century. Completed in 1915, the graceful arches across the Clark's Fork were the first such use of reinforced concrete in Montana. Proximity of the Gibson Concrete Works in Fromberg offered the county this rare opportunity to experiment. Founder John Gibson, a pioneer in concrete building techniques, supplied the cement for the massive structure. Gibson manufactured cement buildings and chimney blocks, ornamental cornices and columns, and a nationally recognized sectional concrete culvert he invented and patented.

The Beley Construction Company of Livingston won the $10,000 contract and construction began in May 1914. The bridge was a critical link that allowed farmers, ranchers, and their children on the east side of the Clark's Fork access to the railroad station and school at Fromberg. For a time during its construction, students had to ford the river to get to school.

The bridge opened to traffic in January 1915. The multi-span, solid arch structure was 219 feet long, the largest of its kind in Montana. Ornamental detailing embellished the sidewalls of the arches and the guardrails flanking the narrow deck. The Fromberg Herald boasted that every citizen would "fell a degree of pride in the knowledge that they helped bring to Fromberg the largest concrete bridge in the great Treasure State."

The Fromberg Concrete Arch Bridge, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, eventually succumbed to old age. The Department of Transportation replace it in the early 21st century.

Erected by Montana Historical Society and Montana Department of Transportation 1768, 1767.

Homesteaders who came to farm the Clarks Fork Valley in the early 1900s profoundly affected Fromberg’s growth, adding to its population and elevating its status as a regional trade and shipping center. Dr. Ted Benson, a recent graduate of the University of Minneapolis, saw Fromberg’s potential. In 1907, Dr. Benson set up practice in a two-room building (now relocated) adjacent to his newly constructed, one-story home. Expansion in 1912 added a second story and rear addition to the home, which was again enlarged in 1915. The front-facing gambrel roof with continuous dormers, wide eaves with decorative rafter and purlin tails, and a full-length front porch (enclosed circa 1927) characterize this architecturally sophisticated Colonial Revival style residence built by Edgar J. Schofield. A gable-roofed horse barn built in 1907 was enlarged in 1912 to accommodate the doctor’s Ford runabout. Two years before his retirement in 1950, Fromberg celebrated Dr. Benson’s seventy-fifth birthday, honoring him with a parade of 125 of “Doc’s babies,” a mere fraction of the some three thousand children the doctor delivered during his long practice. This attractive home today is a Fromberg landmark, representing the town’s early years and a tribute to a pioneer who served his adopted community long and well.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The first Protestant services in the Clarks Fork Valley were held in 1897. The Reverend John G. Clark of Red Lodge officiated in a company boardinghouse tent at the nearby coal mining town of Gebo. By 1905, the growing congregation needed a more permanent location, and the thriving town of Fromberg was chosen as the logical site. On donated land, local contractor Charles Darnall began construction of Fromberg’s first church in April 1907. When Darnall abruptly left town, a force of volunteers completed the building in January 1908. By 1911, the new church was paid for, and a special service was held to burn the mortgage notes. A gabled roof, Gothic windows, and a steeple with square tower and open belfry furnish the clapboard building with an unpretentious elegance that reflects vernacular church designs of the era. In 1921-1922, a Craftsman style addition expanded the church. Paid for with funds raised by the Ladies’ Aid and built with volunteer labor, the new wing included an office, study room, and social room. The south room of the addition soon opened as a library, making the church’s book collection available to the public. Now the United

Methodist Church, the building graces Fromberg’s streetscape, representing the collective efforts and community spirit of its pioneer congregation.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Norwegian-born immigrant John Gibson arrived in the Clarks Fork Valley at the turn of the twentieth century and soon opened brickyards in Fromberg and nearby Belfry. Gibson became one of the area’s most prominent contractors, constructing Fromberg’s first brick building, the I.O.O.F. Hall, in 1906. Gibson’s future, however, did not lie in bricks. When a competitor supplanted his company in 1909, the resolute contractor established a small concrete plant adjacent to this property. Here Gibson began to manufacture concrete block for building construction, sidewalk blocks, drain tile, flue liners, and fenceposts. By the 1910s, his patented culvert design was acclaimed the best on the market, and in 1914, Gibson supplied the concrete for the construction of the Fromberg Concrete Arch Bridge. To promote the use of concrete and demonstrate its viability in residential construction, Gibson built his own home of concrete block next to the factory circa 1909. It was, and still is, unique to Fromberg. Gibson subsequently enlarged the home and in 1929, tastefully remodeled it adding Craftsman style detailing. A gable-roofed front porch and extended eaves with exposed rafters add the characteristic elements of this popular style. Concrete lug sills and stucco with an unusual mixture of rock and colored glass reveal Gibson’s exceptionally fine craftsmanship.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

The Gebo Mine, founded in the Clarks Fork Valley in the late 1890s, brought the tracks of the Northern Pacific to this area. The railroad, however, bypassed the coal mine and the town of Gebo that flourished near it because of difficult accessibility. A spur line to the mine was constructed in 1898, and by early 1899, a small wood-frame depot stood ready north of where the Gebo spur left the main tracks. The railroad named the station “Fromberg” after Northern Pacific stockholder Conrad Fromberg, and it immediately provided local ranchers with a link to distant markets. William Swallow recognized that his land near the depot offered potential for a new townsite. The original six-block townsite of Fromberg was platted in “T-town” form, with the main street perpendicular to the tracks. The depot, constructed by the railroad from standardized plans for “fourth class combination stations,” originally included a ticket office and waiting room on one end, freight room on the other end, and central living quarters for the agent. Remodeling in 1909 expanded the waiting area into the central apartment, and clapboard siding was applied over the board-and-batten walls. The depot served passengers and freight until 1970. Later moved seventy-five feet to its present location, the building today is the only remaining Northern Pacific depot along the historic Clarks Fork branch line and the last railroad building in Fromberg. In its new function as the Clarks Fork Valley Museum, this railroad veteran is an appropriate ambassador of the region’s rich history and a significant reflection of Fromberg’s roots.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.

Jewish merchant Samuel Greenblatt moved to Fromberg from Gebo in 1900. An immigrant from Russia, Greenblatt built the town’s first commercial building. Two years later he married Jennie Hetch of Chicago at Temple Emanu-El in Helena. Greenblatt built his “cash only” mercantile at a time when store credit was the norm. Although the couple and their two daughters moved to Denver in 1909, they returned to Fromberg at the peak of its prosperity in 1911 and built this Colonial Revival home. Local carpenter W. C. Parker constructed the “modern” residence, promising it “would be one of the best buildings in town.” A skilled craftsman, Parker distinguished the home with a half-story “great room” and ornamental woodwork; the gambrel roof, a hallmark of Parker’s, featured a tri-foil window in the front gambrel. The home was built in front of a 1905 two-story wooden barn that Greenblatt used to store hay for his horse. As a pioneering businessman, Samuel considered himself a “square dealing merchant” who operated “with justice to all; special favors to none.” His store offered clothing, fabric, and furniture; he also sold sugar, lard, and other groceries.

Grenblatt bought hides and pelts as well as old rubber, copper, and brass. Despite his enterprising nature, the mercantile failed in 1913 and the family moved to Billings. Coal company owner W. E. Pinkney purchased the home in 1914, but then sold it in the 1920s to Martin and Bertha Halpin of Fromberg Pressed Brick and Tile.

Erected by Montana Historical Society.