| Additional Information: | 1981: Vernacular building with modern brick and siding, false front with brackets, metal roof, and two-window facade.
2021: This two-story Commercial Vernacular building was constructed c.1880 with a one-story side addition built in 1950. The two-story building is rectangular in plan with board and batten siding at the first story, asbestos and clapboard siding at the second story (along the front and side elevations, respectively), and a metal-clad gable roof hidden behind a false front. The false front features a row of heavy wooden brackets under a widely projecting overhang and asbestos-clad pilasters with wooden capitals along each corner. The front elevation faces south and is asymmetrical in plan due to an off-center front entrance. The entrance is recessed at the eastern end of the façade. The surrounding first-story storefront was clad in board and batten siding sometime after 1977 so that no shop windows or other detailing remains. A one-story addition projects from the eastern elevation of the older building; this 1950 addition is rectangular in plan with concrete block and stone veneered walls and a flat roof. The front (south) elevation of the addition is clad in stone veneer and contains two single-pane picture windows with metal security doors at the east and west ends of the façade. A small concrete panel at the center of the façade below the roofline reads “1950 / C.A. Fossum & Son.” The front (south) elevation of the building’s second story is clad in asbestos siding and contains two singly-placed 1-over-1 windows with decorative shutters. A small ventilation panel is located at the center of the elevation above the windows. The eastern elevation is obscured at the first story by the concrete block addition while the second story is clad in clapboard and contains modern two-sash sliding windows and modern 1-over-1 double-hung windows. The western elevation of the building is clad in clapboard at the first story and board and batten at the second story; an exterior wooden staircase provides exterior access to a doorway at the second story. Remaining windows in the western elevation are modern 1-over-1 windows.
This building served as a drug store through 1911 and as a general store in the years immediately following. The building’s longest lasting function, however, began in 1918 when Olaf O. Holmlund opened a funeral parlor on the building’s first floor. Holmlund had emigrated from Hamar, Norway in 1904, settling in Bangor in 1918. Holmlund supplemented his income by renting the building’s second floor to dentist, Dr. Alan Steiner and later to physician and surgeon, Dr. M.W. Ward. Holmlund also utilized space in an adjacent building to the east (no longer extant) in which he sold and serviced clocks and served as a silversmith with silverware sales. When Holmlund retired from the funeral business in 1945, the property was purchased by Clifford A. Fossum, Sr. In addition to operating the funeral parlor, Fossum supplemented his income through the sales of washing machines and clocks from a small showroom space in the rear of the building. In 1950, under Fossum’s ownership with his son Clifford A. Fossum, Jr. as partner, the adjacent building was razed and the existing one-story concrete block addition was constructed in its place. The modern addition allowed for more space for funeral visitations as well as for embalming procedures; following completion of the addition, the older building served as the funeral home’s casket showroom. In 1955, the family began distributing bottled gas out of the eastern half of the concrete block addition; this venture lasted only until 1958. In 1963, Clifford A. Fossum, Jr. and his wife Elaine inherited the family funeral business with both Clifford and Elaine serving as licensed funeral directors. By this time, the storefront of the original building had been altered with the installation of stone veneer siding and downsized shop windows, the original multi-pane windows at the second story had been replaced by the existing windows, and the surrounding second-story wall had been reclad in asbestos. After Clifford Fossum, Jr.’s death in 1989, Elaine Fossum continued to operate the funeral home in Bangor (in addition to a second branch in Onalaska) until her death in 2014. After Elaine Fossum’s death, the first story of the building was reclad in board-and-batten siding (obscuring the storefront) and a new, recessed entrance was added. |
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