Como Orchards Club, designed by

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key role in the architectural movements o ...

in 1909 and located near

Darby, Montana Darby ( Salish: snk̓ʷɫxʷexʷem̓i, "Place Where They Would Lift Something") is a town in Ravalli County, Montana, United States. The population was 783 at the 2020 census. Darby is located near the southwestern border of Montana and Idaho, al ...

, was part of a land development scheme (Como Orchards) inspired by the western railroad expansion. By 1909 three rail lines ran to

Missoula, Montana Missoula ( ; fla, label= Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County. It is located along the Clark Fork ...

, and when the Northern Pacific Railway connected a spur south to the Bitterroot Valley, transportation of people and products became increasingly easy. The establishment of the Bitter Root irrigation district and construction of the Lake

Como Dam Como Dam () is a dam in Ravalli County, Montana, in the far western part of the state. Como Dam was originally constructed by local farmers around 1910, to impound a natural lake for irrigation storage; the United States Bureau of Reclamation ...

and the Big Ditch Canal, both financed by the

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

investor W. I Moody and supervised by F. D. Nichols, enabled promoters to attract new investors (particularly college professors from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

and intellectuals) with hopes of establishing a huge apple-growing industry in the valley. Wright was asked to design the master plan, clubhouse, land office building, and cottages, while

Marion Mahony Griffin Marion Mahony Griffin (; February 14, 1871 – August 10, 1961) was an American architect and artist. She was one of the first licensed female architects in the world, and is considered an original member of the Prairie School. Her work in ...

and

William Eugene Drummond William Eugene Drummond (March 28, 1876 – September 13, 1948) was a Chicago Prairie School architect. Early years and education He was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of carpenter and cabinet maker Eugene Drummond and his wife Ida Marietta ...

supervised the project. At least fifty-three cottages were originally planned around the clubhouse (which had a two-story lounge and a large dining room with vast, open porches and three large stone fireplaces) but only twelve were constructed. The small frame structures had stone fireplaces but were built cheaply as seasonal, camp-like housing, with no central heat and pine blocks instead of foundations. The two-bedroom cottages had no kitchen space, while the three-bedroom versions had a kitchen and a porch. Unpredictable weather and enormous shipping problems caused the project to fail. Wright lost money when the bank foreclosed in 1916. While several cottages stood until the late 1930s, others were gradually torn down. The clubhouse was altered,

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ed, and used to house workers and store hog feed. In 1945 the boards were taken to build a barn. Now only the abandoned land office building and one three-bedroom cottage remain.

References

* Storrer, William Allin. ''The Frank Lloyd Wright Companion''. University Of Chicago Press, 2006, (S.144)

External links

Alpine Meadows Ranch - current owner of Como Orchards
* ttp://ravallirepublic.com/articles/2005/12/22/news/news02.txt Storied structures - Darby ranch owner relishes his land's colorful historybr>Frank Lloyd Wright in BozemanGeneral Plan of the Como Orchards Summer Colony
Frank Lloyd Wright buildings Houses in Ravalli County, Montana Buildings and structures in Ravalli County, Montana {{Montana-struct-stub