Designed by Billings Architect Chandler C. Cohagen, in November of 1938 a contract for the school totaling $63,000 was let to contractor W.T. Morrison of Whitehall, Montana by the Fromberg School Board. Part of the contract called for the demolition of the 1916 school standing where the new school was to be erected. In 1926 a gymnasium had been added to the 1916 school and was left in place, the new school built to adjoin it.
As of October 12, 1939 the Art Deco building was sufficiently complete to allow occupancy, though some work still was required on a couple of the classrooms. The Fromberg Herald noted that the building was:
an achievement of which Fromberg may be proud.
It has a home economics room, a science laboratory, the gymnasium, and dressing rooms as well as shower equipped lavatories on the first floor. The next floor boasts the seventh grade room, eighth grade room, English room, typing room, office, the auditorium which also serves as an assembly, and the library, which due to glass walls, may be supervised by the assembly teacher. On the top floor are the balcony of the auditorium, music room and an extra room as yet unassigned. Spacious halls and lockers in which books and wraps may be securely placed contribute their share towards an uncrowded building.
From the NRHP Continuation Sheet
In a town of around 450 people, the Fromberg schools, elementary and high combined, have a present enrollment of right around 100 students. When this school was built the town was not substantially different is size than at present. In fact, the population of Fromberg in 1930 was marginally larger than at present. Fromberg reached a peak population of 533 in 1940, just a year after this school was completed. Its population nadir of 364 occurred in 1970. Essentially an agriculture service centre, Fromberg was settled at the turn of the twentieth century, its first post office established on March 21, 1903.
Fromberg High School
Amidst the Great Depression, School District No. 30 applied to the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works for a grant to aid in financing a new high school in Fromberg; by this time high school enrollment had reached over 150 students causing overcrowding in existing facilities. In October 1938, voters approved a $26,000 bond and the federal government granted $28,350 for project construction. That same month, plans for the new building were completed by Chandler C. Cohagen. A noted Billings architect, Cohagen had recently designed a P.W.A-funded addition to the high school at nearby Joliet. In November, the Fromberg School Board let a $63,000 construction contract to W.T. Morrison of Whitehall, Montana.
The Fromberg High School displays subtle design elements of the Art Deco style, popular for public and commercial buildings in the United States from about 1925 until the early 1940s. The building's Art Deco attributes are manifested by the rounded corners of the concrete surround at the front entry and the vertical emphasis of the facade and south wall created by strips of windows, with spandrels in a few instances.
The 1939 High School is a two-story building constructed of reinforced brick exterior walls. The building is elevated on brick walls encompassing a basement level and rests on a concrete foundation. It is comprised of an L-shaped wing of classrooms and offices on the south, a rectangular-shaped auditorium wing on the north, and a long narrow wing on the west that ties the building with the 1926 gymnasium. The building rests over a concrete-walled basement and has a built up roof completely hemmed by a tall, flat parapet. The building's brick walls are visually relieved by several continuous belt courses of concrete. A thick belt defines the water table while thinner courses accent the basement and parapet, and create continuous sills for the first story windows.
From the NRHP Continuation Sheet