Picket Block

Red Lodge Commercial Historic District

By The Montana National Register Sign Program

Picket Building Still image capture of the Picket Building, Red Lodge, Montana. Image information drawn from print verso. b&w print. Source: Official records of the Montana State Historic Preservation Office, Helena, Montana Creator: Kommers, McLaughlin, & Leavengood, Architects
120 E. Callender, Livingston, Montana 59047 Date: September, 1981

Designed by Red Lodge carpenter and amateur architect Frank A. Sell and built by W. T. Pernham in 1902, this impressive brick commercial building was home to the Red Lodge Picket and, after 1918, the Picket-Journal, the primary news sources for the community and Carbon County for over fifty years. Publisher Walter Anderson, who came to Red Lodge in 1893, was the original owner. The newspaper’s offices and print shop were located on the second floor while a succession of businesses, including a millinery shop, undertaking parlor, and hardware stores, occupied the ground floor. When the Carbon County News acquired the Picket Journal in 1943, Red Lodge grocer Frank Romersa purchased the building and turned the second floor over to the Fraternal Order of the Knights of Pythias, a benevolent society dedicated to universal peace and good will among men. With its distinctive second floor-brick arches, this imposing building has been a significant fixture on Red Lodge’s Main Street for over a century.