Distinctly Montana Magazine

50 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 signed to be as unobtrusive as possible so as to support the illu- sion that patients were in someone's (elegantly designed) home. The most striking design element, according to author and founder of the Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly Dixie Legler, "ap- pears to be without precedent in Wright's work: a seven-foot-di- ameter plastic sphere poised in the center of the glass wall facing the garden. Half inside and half outside the glass wall, this voluptuous white orb was...lit from below by floodlights," a "glowing translucent bubble." In January of 1960, the clinic opened with a party to which the public was invited. Hundreds attended. There appears to have been some minor controversy over the design of the clinic, but the Pilot weighed in via an editorial: "Now that it is in use, and everyone has had a chance to inspect it, we would like to publicly hail the new Frank Lloyd Wright clinic building and those responsible for its construction in Whitefish ...If the people who put up this building had listened to a handful of gloom merchants, Whitefish wouldn't have its new clinic. For- tunately, these people chose instead to look around them and find the potential for Whitefish which we at the PILOT and many other people in other businesses also believe in. That is the val- ue of the positive approach. And that is why we salute the new clinic." The clinic was succeeded by the First State Bank, which made alterations to the original design, after which it housed a series of professional offices from the '80s through the 2000s. In the 2000s, the Morris and Frampton law firm bought the building and helped to restore it to something like its original form. In 2016, developer Mick Ruis purchased the former Lockridge building. He later claimed that he was unaware that it was a Wright building. He began planning to demolish the building in 2018, as various preservation groups scrambled to prevent its destruction. The Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy of- Craving Steamy Soaks in the Crisp Montana Air? Paradise Valley Awaits Lodging Phone 406-589-7350 C a b i n s R V P a r k S u i t e s YellowstoneHotSpringsMT.com P o o l H o u r s 9 : 0 0 a m - 9 : 0 0 p m T u e s d a y - S u n d a y F u l l y F u r n i s h e d C a b i n s & S u i t e s w / K i t c h e n s a v a i l a b l e y e a r r o u n d . Cafe

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