Photograph
2012.3720.20
from the collection of
Title
Fremad Building ca. 1908, Glenwood, MinnesotaCreation Date
1906 – 1912Dimensions
8 cm H x 14 cm W
Description
Photograph of the Fremad Building ca. 1908.This was the home of the Fremad Association, a Glenwood business institution, as it looked ca. 1906. Samuel Johnston built a general store on this location in 1870. At that time the store occupied a white frame house which is partially visible toward the left side of this photo, immediately behind the main building.
Johnston sold the business to Nels, Michael and Casper Wollan in 1874. The Wollan Bros. had opened a hardware store on the east side of Franklin Street, and buying out Johnston allowed them to expand their business. The Wollan brothers enlisted the support of their parents and siblings to make the purchase and formed a stock company named the Fremad Association. The name they chose, "Fremad", is a Norwegian word meaning forward or progressive. It reflected not only the Wollan brothers' energetic and enterprising personalities, but also the Norwegian roots of much of the store's county-wide clientele.
In 1893 the original wood frame building was moved from its corner location and replaced by the brick structure which is the subject of this photograph. The building shown here was destined to undergo many alterations and enlargements as year by year the Fremad Association grew into a department store. This photograph shows the building in its original manifestation of ca. 1906, its main entrance situated at the building's corner and a brick veneer façade rich with decorative brickwork beneath a roofline with ornamental finals. The brick façade shown in this photograph was completely redone as part of a construction / expansion project in 1919. The Fremad Store was sold to the Ogard Brothers in 1933, though the Fremad Association stock company continued to own the building until 1977.
LOCATION AND SURROUNDINGS: The Fremad building has stood for 130 years [in 2023] on the corner of S. Franklin Street and First Avenue S.W. (originally named S. Franklin St. and W. Green St.). This was always the main business section of town, but in the distance we see the edges of a nearby residential area.
Two gentlemen in business suits stand near the main, corner entrance to the Fremad Association, recently vacated by their bank department. A large sign above the second story windows reads "SOUTHERN ALBERTA AND MINNESOTA LAND COMPANY" which operated from 1906 to 1911. The second floor of the Fremad building housed professional offices - Attorney T.O. Ofsthun, Dr. John Jeffers DDS, Dr. Morse Whittemore, and perhaps more. The second floor also has a large public gathering space often referred to as the Fremad Opera Hall which hosted entertainments, social events and other public meetings from 1893 to 1980.
At the Franklin Street side of the building, awnings are drawn down over the large picture windows giving light onto the dry goods portion of the store. On the sidewalk a man in shirt sleeves strolls by beneath the awning. At the First Ave / Green Street side is an entrance to the grocery portion of the business, above which a large sign reads "Pillsbury's." In front of this door two or three waiting horse-drawn buggies show that this is the delivery entrance of the store.
To the left of the main Fremad store building sits the original wood frame store which served at the time of the photo as a warehouse for the store's extensive and varied stock.
One door to the right of the Fremad, the sign on the next, small, wood-frame store reads "ROWE HARDWARE." Here too the awning is drawn down, and a buggy pulled by two horses waits. At the far right of the photo the side wall of the Fremad Bank (or Pope County State Bank) is visible.
The bottom foreground of the photo shows an expanse of Franklin Street's unpaved but well-graded gravel. Two utility poles stand in the foreground, one at photo center and the other at the right edge of picture. From these, electric wires hang above Franklin Street which hold an electric light over the middle of the intersection. Beneath the utility pole on the right stands a narrow fire hydrant of the period.
At the far left is a two-story house partly obscured under trees. This home has the distinction of being the only house in Glenwood with a mansard- style roof.
DATING PHOTO: The Pope County State Bank was built in 1906. The Southern Alberta & Minnesota Land Company was incorporated in 1906 and stopped advertising in 1911. The latest possible date is more problematic but may be estimated by the absence of automobiles. These might have appeared on Glenwood's downtown streets at least by 1908. It would be possible however, though not likely, that the photo could have been taken as late as 1912 or even 1915.
Related People and Organizations
Fremad Association