martinhouseclr

110 DARWIN D. MARTIN HOUSE // CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT 1930 - 1966 DECLINE, ABANDONMENT, & TAURIELLO OWNERSHIP Though Martin’s financial fortunes had declined, and both his and Isabelle’s health had deteriorated (his more precipitously), the Jewett Parkway gardens still seemed to be both a source of pride and an outlet for his remaining energy. Summers were increasingly spent on the lake at Graycliff, but even up until 1934, after several strokes and when Martin became unable to even speak, the most optimistic of his diary entries note his garden pruning efforts. 241 Along with his continued voracious reading, and even with his increasing disabilities, garden work seemed to be Martin’s chief diversion. However, the new decade also brought a shift in how maintenance was completed – a shift to do “more with less” that ultimately altered the landscape’s character. Martin’s other diversion, and no doubt a source of happiness, was the adoption and 241 DDM, Memorandum, 19 May 1934, MFP-UB, and; DDM, Memorandum, 27 June 1934, MFP-UB. birth of grandchildren, who seemed to spend a great deal of time exploring the gardens at both Graycliff and Jewett Parkway. A baby girl, Margaret R. Foster, was adopted by Dorothy Foster in February of 1930. 242 [Fig. 92] In November of that year a boy was born to the Fosters, Darwin M. Foster, the Martins’ second grandchild. Photographs from the first year of the grandchildren’s lives show a still-vibrant peony bed in the courtyard, a maintained gravel walk, and as the image is clearly June, the just awakening and still expansive perennial border along the pergola. However, though Frank Lloyd Wright’s idealized 1910 Wasmuth portfolio vision of the Martin House included vine cover, and indeed, early on the plants selected included a substantial proportion of all genus and species of climbers, it is clear by the vine cover on the elm trees that either some level of maintenance has been deferred or the Martins are simply satisfied and comfortable with where the landscape has outgrown itself. Additionally at this time is an unusual undertaking by Martin’s then 30-year-old son, Darwin R., which indicates a learned life-long love of flowers, an effort to find new income in the beginning Great Depression, and, perhaps most significantly, Isabelle’s potential new involvement in bringing in money for the family. 243 Darwin R. Martin’s new enterprise, documented by 242 DDM, Memorandum, 14 February 1930, MFP-UB. 243 Isabelle was a skilled flower arranger, known to produce arrangements for the home, special events or other functions. Fig. 92 Dorothy Foster in courtyard garden with Margaret Foster, born January 1930.