Frank Lloyd Wright
words by > Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt
The Wright Way
Buffalo provides some of the most stunning examples of the work of famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
With the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, Buffalo, New York, blossomed into one of America’s first boomtowns. By 1900, with a thriving industry and low-cost electrical power (fueled by nearby Niagara Falls), Buffalo became the premier city on the Great Lakes. Reflecting the deep pockets of its many millionaires, the Queen City soon sparkled with impressive architectural gems. Many of these lush homes and buildings stand as proud reminders of Buffalo’s glorious past. And if interest in Buffalo’s wealth of Frank Lloyd Wright-designed homes is any indication, Buffalo’s singular reputation as the “home of the chicken wing” is about to flutter to the wayside.
Wright’s tie to Buffalo can be attributed to one man: Darwin Martin, a top executive at the Larkin Soap Company, once the largest mail-order business in the country. Eager to expand beyond the Chicago and Wisconsin markets, Wright, at just 35 years old, jumped at the chance to gain national recognition.
Martin first commissioned Wright to build a small home for his sister, Delta Barton, and her husband. It was to be a test to see if Wright could keep to a timeline and budget. It wasMartin’s respect for Wright’s abilities that probably stopped him from ousting Wright when costs for the Barton House passed its $4,500 budget. The final price tag? $12,500.
When Martin complained about the costs, Wright, ever the salesman, wrote that Martin would have a “real something to show for his years of hard work, and a translation of those hard, faithful years into a permane nt record that will proclaim him to subsequent generations as a lover of the good! the true! the beautiful!”
The Barton House was the first of six related structures that Wright designed for the Martin’s large corner property on Jewett Parkway. A year after the Bartons moved into their small jewel in 1904, Martin ushered his wife, Isabelle, and their two children into their mammoth Wright-designed Prairie Style home. To its 15,000-square-foot area, Wright added a pergola, conservatory and gardener’s cottage. An additional carriage house protected the Martin’s horses.
But residents of the prestigious Parkside neighborhood were dismayed by the Martins’ unusual complex, with its horizontal lines, layered roofs and massive chimneys. The Buffalo newspaper referred to it as a “Jule Verne type of structure.” Yet the complex’s 1.7 acres gives Buffalo significant bragging rights: It is the only multi-structured project in which Wright was gifted with so much space, an unlimited budget and unwavering client support. And the project did wonders for Wright’s career. Says John Courtin, past executive director of the Martin House Restoration Corporation: “If Wright had never had a client outside of Chicago who took the leap that Martin did, he might never have become a national architect.”
By 1909, the Martins’ estate was valued at more than one million dollars; by the late 1920s, it soared to nearly $3 million. So, when Isabelle wanted a lakeshore summer home in nearby Derby, New York, Wright was given the commission in 1926. An “Organic Style” home with indigenous fieldstone, wood shingle roofs and molded stucco planes was built just 75 feet from the edge of a cliff.
Unlike the dim interior of the first Martin house, Graycliff is flooded with light, as large windows in every room offer vast vistas of lake and greenery. Isabelle demanded this concession, in addition to closets, maid quarters and a window in her bedroom bath—even though it’s smack dab in the middle of the rear chimney. Her poor eyesight, a plague that developed in her teens, softened Wright’s usual disdain for interference with his designs.
Reine Hauser, executive director of The Graycliff Conservancy, says Buffalo is unusual in that it offers examples of both Wright’s Prairie Style and his Organic Style. “The fact that he designed both for a single family is even more amazing,” she says. “That, in itself, is bringing people here.”
That Wright lovers can tour the Martin homes at all is a modern miracle. When stocks tumbled with the market crash in 1929, Martin lost his vast fortune. When he died from a stroke in 1935, Martin’s bank account rattled with less than 50 cents. As the Great Depression gripped the country, Isabelle was forced to abandon the Martin House in 1937, unable to pay the taxes. The majestic complex, unheated and left open to the elements, decayed for a decade, until it was finally purchased and subdivided into rental units. Down went the crumbling pergola, conservatory and carriage house; up went three two-story apartments.
By the early 1940s, Isabelle was forced to also abandon her beloved Graycliff. Expressing her disappointment to Wright, Isabelle wrote, “Though I am being stripped of all the beauty you created for us, nothing can take from me the inspiration and joy of that distinguished and gracious environment… Therefore I am grateful to you for enriching and glorifying the world in which I lived for 35 years.”
Hauser believes Graycliff’s purchase in 1951 by the Order of the Piarist Fathers ultimately saved the house, despite minor alterations to add student dormitories. “Adaptive reuse is often the way to save a building,” she says. “We’re lucky the Fathers knew Graycliff was a special place and treated it with great care and respect.”
Today, the Martin complex and Graycliff are enjoying vibrant rebirths. Millions of federal, city and private dollars guaranteed the purchase and renovation of the properties—and the rebuilding of the missing pergola, conservatory and carriage house.
As well as taking in the restorations, visitors can make a stop at Buffalo’s Forest Lawn Cemetery to see how the Martins wished to be interred. In 1927, Martin commissioned Wright to design a mausoleum, but it was not built due to his financial crisis. Community interest in the project, however, led to the building of the Blue Sky Mausoleum in 2004.
Like the Martin home, it is based on a pier-and-cantilever construction. Twenty-four crypts of Vermont white granite nestle on a gentle slope. And, for a mere $125,000, anyone can buy a crypt, becoming a part of the enduring Martin/Wright legacy.
Major Frank Lloyd Wright structures in the Buffalo area:
Darwin D. Martin House Complex, 125 Jewett Parkway, Buffalo. Best example of Wright’s Prairie Style. Open for tours year round. Restoration is ongoing. www.darwinmartinhouse.org
Graycliff, 6472 Old Lake Shore Rd, Derby. Organic Style. Restoration ongoing. Tours April-Nov; reservations required. www.graycliff.bfn.org
Blue Sky Mausoleum, Forest Lawn Cemetery, 1411 Delaware Ave, Buffalo. Designed in 1928; built 2004. Open daily. www.blueskymausoleum.com