martinhouseclr

111 2 // SITE HISTORY & EVOLUTION both a Darwin D. diary entry and photographs, was the opening in May 1930 of a combination stock-broker’s office and florist located at 15 Court Street, Buffalo, noted for having “54 floral offerings.” 244 [Fig. 93] In 1932, among diary entries noting declined loans and an income tax hearing resulting in an “adverse decision,” Martin ends a series of entries with the phrase, “tightening of money all winter.” 245 It is about this time that some additional landscape alterations become more readily apparent, and certainly fit with the narrative of declining resources and financial instability for the family. The landscape additions are outside of the historic core of the property (the extant National Register defined boundary), located on the adjacent land-locked parcel, once the rear of 143 Jewett, and appear to be an effort to establish a vegetable or other food producing garden with currants and other unknown edibles. 246 it is known from the 1918 Wing survey that fruit trees existed in this area as well. A photograph of the site with currants and vegetable garden furrows 244 DDM, Memorandum, 15 May 1930, MFP-UB. The address noted in the entry, 15 Court Street, matches the period photographs showing floral displays among a wall of stock symbols and prices. The window balustrades of the Liberty Building across the street (still extant) can be seen through the plate glass of the storefront. 245 DDM, Memorandum, 1932, MFP-UB. 246 The currant shrubs are clearly visible in photos, located some distance off the base of the stone retaining wall. However, the other edible landscape additions are only known by clearly visible garden furrows with seedlings just spouting, located west of the currants – likely vegetables. is very clear and also shows that the cedars along the driveway were removed as intended. [Fig. 94] A cedar remains, however, tucked tightly to the stone pier on the north end of the stone wall, and, what proves in later photos to likely be a hemlock at the south end also remains. At some point after 1918, Martin must have sold off the 53-foot wide “garden plot” fronting Jewett Parkway purchased in May of 1906. The rear portion of the lot, containing the poultry house, was formally a separate parcel at least as early as 1903 and may or may not have remained in Martin’s hands through his tenure. However, the house that exists on the lot today (147 Jewett) was built in 1936 according to Erie Country records. A 1935 Sanborn Map also shows the house was extant at that time. [Fig. 95] At any rate, the establishment of a vegetable garden in a space that had, just a handful of years prior (late 1920s), been transformed into additional perennial gardens, with a rustic stone wall and the removal of evergreens, seems to align with the disruption of Martin’s financial life and their increasing reliance on self-grown food. The sale of the original garden lot off Jewett would have been a substantial, albeit temporary relief to these troubles, and thus necessitated this early 1930s establishment of edible gardens elsewhere on the grounds. Fig. 94, bottom View of courtyard area from vegetable garden, photo c. 1935. Fig. 93, top Martin & Co., 15 Court Street, Buffalo, photo c. 1930.