LOOKING BACK, LOOKING FORWARD

Recently, the Belgrade School District marked its 130th birthday. In 1891 when the district sputtered to a start, there were 86 children in the community between the ages of four and twenty-one, although it’s likely that far fewer than that actually attended school as five years later the enrollment was at twenty-one. Kate Conlan was the sole teacher in that first one room school that met in a church. Fast forward to 2026, Belgrade Public Schools now have an enrollment of over 3,100 students and employ nearly 450 talented teachers and support staff.

The district and the city are deep into the process of swapping land/buildings and the Martha Fox Heck and Thomas B. Quaw buildings are being repurposed for use by the city. It's strange to think that we’ll probably not be saying the 'Heck-Quaw couplet' like we have so much in the past several decades. But, so many people don’t know who these people were, so let's talk about it!

Thomas B. Quaw was a Wisconsin grain farmer and developer who purchased land for a railroad siding in the wheat rich farms west of Bozeman. He catered to the Serbian railroad investors by naming the siding Belgrade. Quaw was a Belgrade promoter and donated land for new schools where the current Quaw building now stands. He was an original school board trustee and postmaster (the post office was in his feed store). He had a mansion located on the current Thomas B. Quaw square where the city offices now stand.

Martha Fox Heck began her teaching career in Belgrade in 1933. She was not allowed to teach the following year as the board did not allow married female teachers to teach (this was actually quite common during this time period). She was rehired in 1935 and taught until retiring in 1964, minus a few years to run the Fountain (a local soda shop) in Belgrade. She was the first married female to teach in Belgrade and had an exemplary career.

The building later named for Martha Fox Heck was built in 1955 at a cost of $265,000. It housed grades one through eight and a principal’s office. Belgrade’s first kindergarten classes started in 1975. The building had undergone multiple additions over the years before the current complete re-brand, including a kitchen, school office, library, and additional classrooms.

Belgrade has long been a community of young families, working hard to provide children with the best opportunities. We’ll continue to work to meet the needs of our most important customer-our students.