Lockridge Medical Clinic

The Lockridge Medical Clinic was a medical clinic and later general use office building located in Whitefish, Montana. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and was one of only a few structures known to be built or designed by Wright in Montana (although there are a few other buildings rumored to have been designed by Wright). The structure was built from 1961 to 1963, shortly after Wright's death in 1959. The structure was demolished in 2018, which was a controversial move, as it was the first Frank Lloyd Wright building to be destroyed in many decades.

The origins of the building are somewhat obscure to me. By late in his career, Frank Lloyd Wright was a world-renowned architect, and designing what amounted to a small town office building doesn't seem like something he would need to do for either fame or money. Apparently, while the building also had several of Wright's signature architectural flourishes, it also might have been ill-suited for its original purpose. I also had walked by this building dozens of times before it was demolished, without knowing that it was there and that I was close to such a historical landmark. Finding out that a relatively nondescript office building that I had been near many times was built by a famous architect would be like finding out that a video promoting your local community college was directed by David Lynch, which is either a bad metaphor or a good metaphor because if Flathead Community College called up Lynch and asked to do that, he would probably consider it.

Although it was only a medical clinic and office building in a small town, the Lockridge Medical Clinic was a creation of the United States' foremost architectural innovator. The origin of its creation is unclear from sources I have looked at. Its ending, demolished despite being on the National Register of Historic Places, is also a mystery, perhaps caused by flaws in its construction, or perhaps caused by the short-sightedness of a real estate developer.