The Last Cottage of Wright's Como Orchards Complex

Abstract

IN 19 o 8 Frank Lloyd Wright began work on Como Orchards, a summer colony near Darby, Montana, for a group of University of Chicago faculty. According to Manson (Frank Lloyd Wright to 1910, N.Y., 1958) the master plan is dated April 1909. The scheme consisted of a central lodge and dining hall, and 5 i cottages of varying types. An aerial view and two (or perhaps three) cottage types were included in Wasmuth (Berlin, 19 0, Plates 98 and 99). The aerial view is shown in Hitchcock (In the Nature of Materials 1887-194I, N.Y., 1942; Fig. 167) and Manson (p. zoz). The scheme for the colony was developed symmetrically around an east-west axis. The lodge dominated; a grand treelined curved drive led up to it. Small cottages were to be tightly packed to the west, while larger cottages were spread out to define a broad meadow to the east. As Manson has noted, the layout is not particularly suited to the site, which is irregular in contour, though it does open to the east to a magnificent valley backed by the mountains of the southern Lewis range. The Bitterroot Mountains are to the west.