Gibson, A. J. (Albert John), 1862-1928

Albert John Gibson was born in 1862 in Savannah, Ohio. He moved to Butte, Montana, when he was twenty-one and worked there for five years. In 1888, he arrived in Missoula, Montana, and worked with E. C. Selander as a carpenter. He later formed a partnership with Robert Mentrum and began to study architecture, for which he exhibited a natural genius. He designed St. Patrick’s Hospital, Missoula City-County High School, the Missoula County Courthouse, Sacred Heart Academy, most of the University of Montana, the Greenough Mansion, the Ravalli County Courthouse, and many other buildings in Montana and Idaho, including Wallace, Idaho. In 1909, he retired. In the 1910s, Gibson actively pursued his interest in long-distance automobile touring, including a trip from Missoula to New York City. He was killed in 1928 in an automobile-train accident.

A. J. Gibson was an architect in Missoula, Montana, who designed and built several of the city’s most notable historic buildings. He is responsible for Main Hall on the campus of The University of Montana, the Missoula County Courthouse, and many private residences. He was married to Etta Maud Lockley, the daughter of Frederic Lockley, a prominent newspaperman. The couple died in an automobile-train accident on New Years in 1928.