Preservation of the Gamble-Robinson Co. Warehouse

By Rush Thomas, Freshman

February 17, 2017

The Gamble-Robinson Co. Warehouse, located at 302 E. Main Street is in the process of being preserved by being placed on the National Historic Places Register. According to Lewistown-News Argus, plans from Snowy Mountain Building conflict with this as they wish to build a park on that location. Currently, the plans do not incorporate the building, as the company announced their plan nobody objected to it; however, Duane Ferdinand, Lewistown’s Historic Preservation Officer, has. Another man by the name of Jim Dullenty, Chairman of the Lewistown Historic Resources Commission, has taken the side of Mr. Ferdinand. As the building is well over fifty years old, Snowy Mountain Building has to get special permission to demolish it. The city currently owns it, however, the Montana State Preservation Board has voted to recommend it for preservation.

In the early history of Lewistown, this building supplied flour and electricity to Lewistown. Mr. Dullenty, LHRC Chairman, has stated that the building also has ties to railroad and agricultural development in early Lewistown. Currently, there is an online poll on the News-Argus website to vote for whether it should be preserved or demolished for the park.

Although Mr. Ferdinand and Mr. Dullenty are looking to preserve the building, they are not opposed to a park being built there. They have spoken the architect working on the plans for the park, and he said the building could be easily incorporated into the design of the park, with several uses for it. One of the uses for the building could be as an entryway for the amphitheatre. Mr. Dullenty has said that he is also looking to restore the building once it is preserved. He will soon be making a few minor modifications to his application the National Historic Places Register and sending the edited application by the end of February.