Generation Magazine

The Darwin D. Martin House

By Joshua Bach

 Picture it: Buffalo, 1906, the rain begins to fall. You find a blanket, run over to the row of windows lining your bedroom and open every one. The light breeze begins to trickle in; rolls of thunder begin to resonate within the walls… and all without a drop of rain trespassing the windowpane…

 Frank Lloyd Wright was eager to pass on this relationship of unity with nature in all of his incredible architectural accomplishments. The Darwin D. Martin House, one of his greatest Prairie-style buildings, is no exception.

 The Darwin D. Martin House, located in the heart of Buffalo’s Parkside district, is the result of a beautiful partnership between two men who met through the Larkin Soap Company—a once-booming mail order company based in downtown
Buffalo. Darwin Martin was a boy who grew up during tough times and traveled around the country for a job as a “soap slinger,” but he quickly moved up the ranks to be one of the highest paid corporate executives in America.

 Frank Lloyd Wright, just having started his career, ventured to Buffalo to visit Martin after completing a home for his brother in Chicago. Impressed by his work, and having a desire to establish a home for his family, Martin contracted Wright to build him a house. He had no idea that this family home would become Wright’s magnum opus.

 Upon completion of the main house in 1905, the cost of the complex had grown to several times more than what Wright initially quoted to Martin, but the finished product was miraculous. Walking up to the glass front door, visitors can peer right through the house—down hundreds of yards through the pergola and the conservatory—for a clear view of the Statue of Nike poised at the end.

 Elements like the horizontal lines accentuating its continuous flow with nature, the thick capstone base creating the illusion that the house is rising up from the ground, and the 394 Wright-designed windows lining the complex—most famously the design of the Tree of Life—all come together to make this Wright site the greatest of his accomplishments.

 The full complex was completed in 1909 and boasted six buildings in total; the main house, the pergola, the conservatory, the gardeners house, the carriage house, and the Barton House. But the journey for these two men and their sprawling complex would be anything but easy after the downfall of the Larkin Soap Company and Buffalo’s troubling economic times.

 In 1935, Martin—once one of the richest executives in America—was virtually penniless, and was dying with less than $1 in his bank account and less than $100 in assets. His generous philanthropic tendencies, a substantial loss stemming from a loan to his son, and a considerable thrashing from the stock market crash on Black Friday completely wiped him of all his riches.

 This marked the start of the great decline of the Darwin D. Martin house. In 1937, only two years since Martin had passed, his wife Isabelle, having insufficient funds to sustain the complex on her own, packed up her belongings and abandoned the house with no intention of ever returning.

 After her departure, the house sat empty until 1955 when Sebastian Tauriello purchased the land and began selling pieces. The new landowners, in order to make way for three apartment buildings, began demolishing large parts of the complex, including the pergola, conservatory and carriage house. The remainder of the complex continued to deteriorate. In 1966—with the arrival of University at Buffalo President Martin Myerson, whose dream was always to live in a Frank Lloyd Wright house—the university purchased the house and designated the Martin House as their President’s House.

 The university used it as the President’s House until 1982 when the School of Architecture moved into the complex. In 1991, former UB President William Greiner helped to spearhead the creation of the Martin House Restoration Corporation. The mission of the corporation was to take the now-skewed complex and restore it to its original six building masterpiece. In 1994, the Restoration Corporation, with cooperation from The Buffalo News, Rich Products and M&T Bank, purchased the Barton house, the last building on the complex not to be titled to the corporation.

 The restoration process started four years after the corporation was founded, and has since gone through five phases of restoration—ranging from the foundation to the restoration of the demolished pergola, conservatory and carriage house. In 2006, the last of the apartment buildings were demolished, clearing the way for a true makeover.

 The industrial boom that hit Buffalo in the beginning of the 20th century brought the city many influential and historical endeavors, but it did not last. The downfall of industry in Buffalo led many corporations to relocate. Thousands of buildings were left empty or destroyed, including Lloyd’s Larkin Administration Building, and the city was flooded with displaced workers.

 Many people recognize this economic downturn as a completely negative event, but there is a subtle positive side. While many other cities in the United States continued to destroy old buildings to make way for new high rise office buildings and factories, Buffalo stayed stagnant.

 But the stagnation allowed Buffalo to preserve a lot of its buildings and has earned Buffalo its claim as an architectural jewel in the United States. People from all over the have travelled to get the chance to tour some of Buffalo’s finest works.

 The Martin Restoration Corporation is in the second part of Phase V, which includes restoring the inside of the main house and many of the original Wright windows, which are currently in storage. When the restoration project is complete, the site expects to be the second largest Wright attraction in the world, attracting some 75,000 to 80,000 tourists a year, just slightly behind Falling Water in Pennsylvania.

 Buffalo has shown that it truly is the “City of Good Neighbors,” with countless people coming together to make this project possible. The Darwin D. Martin house is a must visit for everyone living in or visiting Buffalo. Volunteer tour guides offer tours throughout the entire year, by reservation. For a limited time, until Feb. 14, basic and in-depth tours are half-price, at $7.50 and $15.

 The Darwin D. Martin House is located at 125 Jewett Parkway, Buffalo, NY, 14214. For more information call (716) 856-3858.

 …The rain subsides and the sun begins to peer out from behind the clouds, radiating through the windowpanes, projecting the Tree of Life on every wall in all directions. Your stance stays still as a grin emerges on your face, and you ask yourself, “where else can you experience such a phenomenal encounter with nature?” The answer is simple… only in Buffalo.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Related posts:

1. When in Buffalo, carpe diem By Joshua Bach The Nickel City was first settled as...
2. Healthy eats in Buffalo By Joshua Bach Associate Editor If you’re tired of repetitive...
3. A slice of Buffalo’s best–gluten-free style Eat: My Tomato Pie 3085 Sheridan Drive Amherst, NY Walking...
4. Extreme Week — How one volunteer helped her community By Melissa Wright Associate Editor Emily-Rose Maher, Hamburg, 24, finished...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.