Friday, June 18, 2010

The Fromme House

There is more than one Fromme House in Lynn Valley. The first Fromme house is at 1466 Ross Road. It was built in the late 1890's by Julius Martin "J. M." Fromme, “The Father of Lynn Valley”.  It qualifies as the first real house built in Lynn Valley. This house is not going to be demolished.


The second Fromme House, the one in the photo above, was at 3253 Fromme Road. J. M's. son Harold  helped contractor Jake Seibald  to build this house that was completed in 1955.  He lived in it until his death at 95 in the year 2000. Harold was a renown local historian and athlete and owned and operated Harold Fromme's Lynn Valley Garage which had been the lumber shed of his father’s original Shingle Mill on Mountain Highway and Harold Road.  Lynn Valley United Church is now on this site. The house at 3253 was demolished in the winter of 2009. Three houses will be built on the site.


There is also a Fromme Block. This is on the south east corner of Mountain Highway and Lynn Valley Road. It was built by J. M. Fromme in 1912 and was one of the first commercial buildings in Lynn Vally. There were and are apartments upstairs. For many years the street level was the home of: Barker's Hardware, a soda fountain with the Lynn Creek Post Office as part of it, and a shoemaker. More recently there was an antique shop, barbershop, cleaners, TV repair shop, and thrift shop.  The Fromme Block  was renovated and restored and is now the home of the Toronto Dominion Bank.


There are not only the Fromme houses and a Fromme Building,  there is also the Fromme Mountain and Fromme Elementary School. Mount Fromme, between Lynn Creek and Grouse Mountain is 3888 feet high.  Today it is a key mountain bike destination. Fromme Elementary School is at 3657 Fromme Road.


Lynn Valley located at the heart of the District of North Vancouver was a logging center in the early 1900’s. The heart of Lynn Valley is at the junction of Lynn Valley Road and Mountain Highway, previously called Centre Road.  This is where J. M. Fromme bought the Lynn Valley Lumber Co. and the Lower Shingle Mill in 1906. He later subdivided his property of 1/4 section for housing sites in the area that is now Lynn Valley Center. He gave part of his land to the Knox Presbyterian Church later called the Lynn Valley United Church in the area that is now the Maple Leaf Gardens.


As you can see the names of the Fromme family can be seen on every map of Lynn Valley. Fromme Road runs north and south from Kirkstone Park below Lynn Valley Road parallel to Mountain Highway and up to Chamberland Drive. Harold Road meets Fromme Road just above its junction with Lynn Valley Road. And Frederick Road, named for Harold’s younger brother who died before Harold was born crosses Fromme Road and Mountain Highway just north of Argyle Secondary School. So all the Fromme family roads-Fromme Road, Harold Road, and Frederick Road-are clustered in the heart of the Lynn Valley they helped to build.


Benches in the memory of Jean and Harold and Julius Martin and Martha Fromme have  been placed at the Veterans Community Plaza.  This Plaza leads from Mountain Highway to the North Vancouver Community History Centre next to Lynn Valley Elementary School on Institute Avenue.


Demolition: Permit applied for October 2009.
Photo: Taken October 24, 2009 by SW.
Research:  Thank you to the Fromme family for information, editing, and fact checking.