Wright or wrong?

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Regional Editor Matt Baldwin posted a brief Facebook video of the demolition of the Frank Lloyd Wright Building on Wednesday. The response was immediate and varied. Here is a sampling, slightly edited.)

Charlene Beams-Madieros: Horrible just horrible.

Dee Hermann: What a shame.

Bobbi Ott Rounds: The guy gave everyone over a year to buy it. Nobody put in the effort. It really doesn’t hold any real historical Whitefish history, a medical clinic, bank, optometrist clinic and offices. Not even a very impressive building to look at in my opinion. Progress can be painful I guess!

Dayna Guffey: Do you know who Frank Lloyd Wright was???

Bobbi Ott Rounds: Yes I do ... I also grew up with that building being my parents’ bank (I still remember their account number) and my eye doctor’s office. I remember the amazing snow sculptures built in front of it during Winter Carnival and the huge ice throne for the king and queen. If people truly value the design of this building by FLW, they would have spent the money to preserve it. There is a FLW preservation group; they were contacted several times.....

Charlene Beams-Madieros: It’s not progress, it’s greed!

Bobbi Ott Rounds: Yet no one was upset enough to spend the money to save it so...

Cate Jamison: Many think the Mona Lisa is ugly, but we don’t pitch it in the trash every time fashion dictates current tastes in art. So it comes down to money for you, Bobbi. That’s sad because I fear it’s exactly this mindset that will see Glacier National Park logged and drilled.

Bobbi Ott Rounds: Comparing that building to the Mona Lisa or GNP is ridiculous! As is the narrative that any park will be logged or drilled. Obviously it came down to money for everyone since not one person put up any money to buy it ... also neither the Mona Lisa nor GNP are owned by private citizens as this building is. Just because it was designed by a famous architect certainly doesn’t mean it belongs to the people...

Marilyn Irene Keller Rittmeyer: I am one who believes in historical preservation, but we have to be sensible. This building had nothing distinctive about it.

Dayna Guffey: A sin. Montana has changed so much these last few years. So not OK. “Progress” leave us alone.

Marilyn Irene Keller Rittmeyer: Look at the building. It could have been designed by any architect fresh out of architecture school. It looked like the elementary school I attended. Like I said, we have to use common sense with historic preservation. Land is precious. A hospital in Chicago (where I live) was built by a famed architect who also designed the Marina Towers which are iconic in Chicago. This hospital was built for the 1960s not the 2010s. There was a huge protest over taking it down, but the land it was on was too precious to have an obsolete building sitting on it. Same story in Montana.

Charlie McDowell: Basic design by his standards. More likely a favor at best for someone. His other designs are the ones you should worry about. Amazing. Would have been nice to keep this one. His architecture is awesome.

One GONE. Bummer.

Garret Anglin: Again ... another notable structure destroyed under the cover of darkness ... what is up with this...?

Daniel Gross: Cancelled my Montana Vacation over this.Shady.

Gabrielle Canonizado: Hahahaha.

Charlie McDowell: Say what?

Jodi Hartshaw: Way to destroy a bit of history in the cover of darkness.

Colter Effertz: Hey, that’s capitalism.

Phil Pontillo: I really think everyone is overthinking the fact that they are doing this at night. Would it change anything if they did it during the day? This has been in the spotlight for quite a while now, it’s not like they are trying to make the building disappear at night so nobody notices.

Dorre Webster: No one will notice? hahahaha.

Mike Barrett: Good riddance! Waste of space! More condos and clothing stores! ... (that no locals live in or shop at). Yay!

Phil Pontillo: Maybe another restaurant that will be gone in a year?

Kristie Fields- Hinzman: So sad ... history is so lost in Whitefish...

William Zornes: The building itself is better off gone than exist in any condition in Whitefish, MT.

Anna Parker: Another landmark gone how sad to see a piece of my childhood destroyed.

Kyle Woodruff: Did the dude even live here or have any kind of impact on our town other than some old building?

Scott Lester Johnson: I’ve lived here 38 years. Never been in it and don’t look at it either.

Bobbi Ott Rounds: It holds no big Whitefish historical significance. And the architect only holds historical significance to people that follow that. Beside that building, he holds no ties to Whitefish and the building has no historical relevance ... it is a run-down building that would need a fortune put into it, but too small to produce an income. It has outlived its time, sorry to say!

Austin Genereux: It is private property. The owner offered to sell it for not much more than he purchased it. No one else ponied up the cash to save it. Building needs to come down if landowner wants it to. End of story.

Jane Mole: And so the number of existing buildings by America’s greatest architect is permanently reduced by one.