Bozeman architect Fred F. Willson, 1929.
Photograph courtesy of the Gallatin History Museum

Some people have a mind and a passion for history that has a mysterious way of making the past come alive for everyone around them. Richard Brown was one of those people. For years, Richard lived a couple blocks from the Gallatin History Museum on West Main Street. He visited often, chatted about local history, and conducted in-depth searches in the museum’s research library on a variety of topics of curiosity. Richard’s favorite subject was Bozeman architect Fred Willson. Brown studied Willson intently and became an expert on the man himself and the multitude of homes, commercial buildings, and other structures created during a career that spanned the full first half of the twentieth century.

Fred Fielding Willson was born in Bozeman to Lester and Emma Weeks Willson on November 11, 1877. To put the timeline in perspective, our friend Richard often pointed out that Fred Willson was born a year after the Battle of the Little Bighorn, which occurred in June 1876. Willson’s parents were well-respected in the Bozeman community. His father, Lester, owned and operated the long-running Willson Company dry goods store, and his mother, Emma, was a talented musician known for her angelic singing voice.

By age twenty, Fred Willson had already witnessed several important events in local history—the incorporation of the city of Bozeman and the coming of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1883, Montana statehood in 1889, and the formation of Montana Agricultural College (now MSU) in 1893. He saw Main Street grow from a muddy track lined with small frame structures to a paved thoroughfare with an electric streetcar and artistically designed brick buildings. After graduating from Bozeman schools and attending the brand-new Montana Agricultural College, Fred obtained his bachelor’s degree in architecture from New York’s Columbia University in 1902. He traveled in Europe and began his architecture career at the firm of Link and Haire in Butte.

Much to Richard’s delight (and to the delight of many other local historians), Willson kept a daily diary of his activities throughout his adult life. Many of Fred’s original diaries and transcriptions are preserved today at Montana State University’s Archives and Special Collections, thanks in large part to the foresight of community historians John and Bernice DeHaas. The diaries provide valuable insight into Willson’s career and notable events in Bozeman. During his multi-year study of Fred Willson’s life and career, Richard Brown delved deeply into the architect’s diaries and came to know Willson’s character through his written words.

Early in his career, evidence in Willson’s writings indicates that he was struggling and on the verge of abandoning architecture altogether. On April 26, 1909, while living and working in Butte, Fred wrote: “Am disgusted [with] the way things are going. Ready to quit.” Still unhappy six months later, he recorded the following on November 2: “Butte looks bum to me. If I stay in Montana [I] want to give up the architectural business and go to farming or something similar.” Fortunately, he stuck with his profession. Just before Christmas in 1909, Willson resigned from the Butte firm and accepted a job in Bozeman designing a new dormitory at Montana State College. Finally home on January 10, 1910, Willson wrote with optimism in his diary: “Unpacking. Rented offices. Bought desk. All Bozeman seems glad to see me back and predict great future.”

Besides Hamilton Hall on the college campus, two of Willson’s earliest projects in the Gallatin Valley were the First Baptist Church on South Grand Ave. and the Sacajawea Inn in Three Forks. Another early Willson building was the Gallatin County Jail on West Main St. (now the Gallatin History Museum), completed in 1911. Willson spent several months working on the design and drawings for the jail, and after his plans were approved by the County Commissioners on April 3, 1911, he began interviewing contractors. Over the next eight months, Fred Willson’s diary entries mention a handful of issues during construction and a few last-minute finishes in early December 1911. To pay for the new building, described as “massive and impregnable” by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Gallatin County raised $35,000 in bonds.

Because the new jail was mostly finished, county officials moved inmates to their new home on December 2, 1911. One can only imagine Willson’s horror just a few weeks later when a headline in the Bozeman Chronicle read “Six Prisoners Break Out of County Jail.” On December 21, Willson’s diary entry simply states: “6 men broke out of New Jail. Am being joked plenty.” After investigation, it was determined that Willson and the builders were faultless. The escape was blamed on an unlocked door and the help of a screwdriver stolen from workers who were adding finishing touches to the building.

Fred Willson, showing his versatility, designed every detail of the jail. This included a gallows platform and trap mechanism built into the second-floor interior balcony. Prisoners had to walk directly beneath the gallows to reach the main cell block, a design feature which no doubt sobered new inmates. Willson’s gallows were used only once, on July 18, 1924. In the wee hours of the morning, Seth Orrin Danner was hanged on the charge of a double murder that occurred between Belgrade and Manhattan in 1920. In his diary, Fred Willson simply remarked, “Danner hung at 2:15 a.m.”

Nearly one hundred years after Danner’s execution, Richard Brown helped museum staff set the gallows platform and spring the trap so we could understand exactly how it worked. After careful study of Willson’s drawings and the mechanism itself, thoughtful planning, and the use of a tall ladder, a handful of museum volunteers and staff gathered to watch. Richard pulled the lever and brought history to life. It was an experience none of us will forget.

Fred Willson’s architecture career, along with his diary entries, continued strong until his health failed in the summer of 1956. When he passed away on August 13, Willson’s resumé included designs for over 1,700 structures of varying sizes and styles. In addition to the aforementioned buildings, a few of his notable works include the Baxter Hotel, the Ellen Theatre, Longfellow, Hawthorne, and Irving schools, the Graf house at 504 W. Cleveland St., and the Fechter Building (one of Richard Brown’s favorites) at 128 E. Main St.

                                                                                                                                                            Richard Brown

In 2017, Richard Brown curated an exhibit on Willson’s life and work displayed in the Weaver Room at the Emerson Center for the Arts and Culture. The “Fred Willson: Context and Contrast” display highlighted Willson’s professional versatility, but also his personality. Willson was humble, hard-working, intelligent, observant, and kind, but with a sense of humor. In the display, Richard wanted to highlight Fred Willson’s character along with his design talent. In the Chronicle article, Brown remarked, “‘History should be about people. All too often it’s about facts.’”

Richard Brown passed away in the summer of 2024. We miss him, but like Fred Willson, he left an incredible legacy. This year, the Gallatin History Museum is honoring them both through a special project. Bozeman artist and sign maker Duncan Kippen is designing and building two new handmade signs for the museum, meant to complement the building and the era in which it was created. Many may recognize Kippen’s work; he crafted the four beautiful “Welcome to Bozeman” signs seen at the north, east, and west entrances to town. Duncan Kippen and Richard Brown were classmates and good friends, and Kippen also happens to be architect Fred Willson’s grandson. To add another layer of meaning, the freestanding yard sign will be dedicated to the memory of Richard Brown. This project is meant to honor not only Richard and Fred, but so many others who work tirelessly to preserve our history and community heritage.

Upon Willson’s death in 1956, several tributes appeared in the local newspapers. One in particular speaks not only to Fred Willson’s character, but to Richard Brown’s as well. “He was always the same; courteous, considerate, interested in every project that had the welfare of the valley as its object... Willson’s [and Brown’s] consideration and thoughtfulness for others is reflected back in his own life, in the pure bright light and warmth of just simple human kindness... In Willson [and Brown] you see a rare thing—a life rewarded. A fine American, a good citizen and above all, a gentleman.”

We need your help to bring this Gallatin History Museum sign to reality. Please visit gallatinhistorymuseum.org to learn more or to donate to this special project.