About our facility

The Hotel Norden is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places under Criterion A, with Commerce and Health/Medicine as the areas of significance.

Built in 1903 as a lodging house, it served as Kalispell's only hospital from 1905-09.

From 1909 until approximately 1955 it was known as the Hotel Norden, managed for many years by the Frederick Brothers. These Norwegian brothers hired Norwegians to work in their hotel and dining room; the business catered to the working class and to county residents who came to Kalispell to do business in the county seat.

The significant dates of 1903 and 1905 relate to the year of construction of the building and to the beginning of its use as a hospital, respectively. The Hotel Norden, known as the Bjorneby Building and the Silver Block during its early years, was constructed in the summer of 1903 as a two-story lodging house by Emil Bjorneby. The Bjornebys were a prominent family in the Flathead Valley. In 1893 four of the Bjorneby brothers, George, Elliot, Joseph, and Emil, traveled from Grafton looking for a milder climate. After stopping off on the Great Northern Railroad, they decided to relocate to Kalispell. Emil Bjorneby came to Kalispell in November of 1895 (the other brothers followed later). He worked at the Mclntosh Hardware Store, farmed, and also handled real estate. The Silver Block served from 1905 until 1909 as Kalispell's only hospital. Kalispell's first hospital had been built in 1895 and subsequent years for Ella R. Webber on 4th Avenue East. It closed, however, in approximately 1905 after the Great Northern Railway moved its division point to Whitefish, and the two hospital buildings were converted to rooming houses. When the first hospital closed, Kalispell's physicians and a dozen businessmen formed the Northwestern Hospital Association and leased the Silver Block. The board contributed $1,200 to furnish it, and physicians took care of contract patients and took pay in stock. In July of 1909 the Northwest Hospital closed its quarters in the Silver Block. Emil G. Bjorneby sold the Silver Block in July of 1909 to real estate agents Griffin & Stannard for $8,000, and that same month Ole G. and Oliver Frederick leased the Silver Block and refurnished it for a rooming house. It opened just in time for the arrival of hundreds of people seeking to obtain land on the Flathead Indian Reservation when it was opened for white settlement. The Fredericks were originally from Norway and had immigrated to the United States with their parents in 1870. They lived in Helena before coming to Kalispell in 1909. When the 1910 federal population census was taken, the two brothers were the hotel proprietors. Ole's wife was Lottie, also from Norway. Some of their lodgers were hotel employees, including a bartender, porter, waitress, chamber maid, and cook. The 1910 census also listed Julie Finch as managing a rooming house in the south half of the building (28 1st Avenue West), and she had at least 11 boarders at that time. In 1915, according to the Kalispell City Directory, the lodgers included a hotel clerk, waiter, bartender, porter, and cooks, plus other lodgers such as musician Ivar Kjorstad. Five years later, according to the federal census, Oliver Frederick was the hotel proprietor, and his widowed sister-in-law Lottie lived at the hotel, as did his brother George, a farmer. Five hotel employees lived at the hotel at that time, all from Norway. The boarders were farmers or general laborers. Some of Kalispell's more prominent citizens also roomed at the Hotel Norden, including Glacier National Park photographer T. J. Hileman in 1911. The Hotel Norden had its own dining room, which was popular with the working class and out-of-town families, such as farmers coming to Kalispell to take care of business. In the early days, one could get a family-style dinner at the Hotel Norden for 25 to 35 cents. Rooms were $1 a night, as compared to $2 a night at the same time at some of the other hotels in town. Ole Frederick moved to the head of Swan Lake, where he had a cattle ranch, in approximately 1913, leaving his brother Oliver as the active manager of the hotel. Oliver Frederick retired from the hotel business in 1926 or 1927. 1930 the Hotel Norden was again offering furnished rooms, and the manager was William L. Winters.

From 1912 until 1944, the building was owned by real estate agents Griffin & Stannard and then an heir of Griffin's. The hotel remained open and operated under the name of the Hotel Norden until approximately 1955. From approximately 1955 until 1976 the hotel was called the Frontier Hotel. Today it is known as the old Rosebrier Inn or just My House.