Distinctly Montana Magazine

46 D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A M A G A Z I N E • S P R I N G 2 0 2 6 The middle-aged architect had, therefore, already made a name for himself in architectural circles for the Darwin D. Martin house in Buffalo and the Edwin H. Cheney house in Oak Park, and the Larkin Administra- tion Building, also in Buffalo. The Frederick C. Robie house in Chicago, one of the most beautiful examples of his Prairie Style, had only been completed the year before, in 1908. In his autobiography, written some twenty years later, Wright described 1909 as a year of exhaustion and cri- sis. Exiting a period of great creativity and productivity, he found himself suddenly tired all the time. "Every day of every week and far into the night of nearly every day, Sunday included, I had 'added tired to tired' and added it again and yet again..." he wrote. Wright had been married to Catherine Lee Tobin for twenty years, and they had six children together. They had met while attending a church social. He called her Kitty. They courted for two years before marrying in 1889. She was a June bride. He would remember her as a "mass of red curls, rather short, bobbing in the breeze. White skin. Cheeks rosy. Blue-eyed, frank and impul- sive. Generous to see and to me." In the course of their courtship, he says, "With no knowledge at all we had come to the boy and girl intimacy, no longer satisfied with sheepish looks and perfunctory visiting or playing or talk or music." Wright had wished to feel free to ex- plore that euphemistic "boy and girl intimacy," but had found it hard to do so under the prying eyes of their re- lations. The solution was to propose. After all, he wrote, "Freedom is necessary to any beauty in any fellowship." They married, he twenty-one, she eighteen, and em- barked on life. He built their first house. But by his year of exhaustion, freedom had begun to take another shape for Wright. "I could see no way out," he wrote. "Because I did not know what I wanted I want- ed to go away... A true home is the ideal of man, and yet—well, to gain freedom I asked for a divorce." And too it meant being able to run away with Martha Bouton "Mamah" Borthwick, the wife of one of his clients. Wright asked his wife for a divorce and was told that if he waited a year, it would be granted. Meanwhile, in early 1909, the BRVI approached Wright to be their ar- chitect on the Como Orchards Project. By February he visited the site of the orchards. There was likely snow on the ground, and the weather was chilly enough to make it hard to imagine a flourishing resort and orchard com- plex, but still he worked, adding tired to tired. Eventually, the scope of the BRVI's plans expanded, and Wright was tasked with designing the planned NOMINATE US WIN $1000 FOR YOUR CHANCE TO 2026 o f BEST M O N TA N A A S V O T E D B Y R E A D E R S O F Pipestone Campground & RV Now open! Taking reservation for 2026 season! Ask about a discount on ATV Rentals at Pipestone Rentals & Adventures for rv park customers pipestonerentalsandadventures.com pipestonervpark.com nominate us for Best ATV Rentals (Pipestone Rentals & Adventures) nominate us for Best campground & Rv Park (Pipestone campground & Rv) and BEST montana adventure ➥ ➥

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