The Bitter Root Inn
Date: 1909
City: Stevensville, Montana
Accessibility: Private
Category: Residential
Restoration status: Destroyed by fire in 1924
In addition to commissioning the Como Orchards Summer Colony (1909), the Bitter Root Valley Irrigation Company asked Wright to plan a town along the Great Northern railway in Stevensville, Montana. The comprehensive plan included civic buildings such as a church, hotel, railroad station, opera house, and library, as well as private residential structures. However, only the Bitter Root Inn was ultimately realized. The two-story hotel had an office, dining room, reception area, and eighteen modest bedrooms with a communal bathroom. A broad veranda; low, hipped roofs; bands of ribbon windows; and board-and-batten siding gave the structure a patently horizontal appearance. Situated among acres of apple orchards, the community was intended to be a picturesque retreat for vacationers from the East. The Bitter Root Valley Irrigation Company went bankrupt in 1916, however, and the town was never fully developed.