martinhouseclr

115 2 // SITE HISTORY & EVOLUTION sculpture. The vines appears to mostly be dead, cut off from their pots or root systems, and left to dry on the walls of the conservatory. [Fig. 102] In January of 1940 an exhibition titled Buffalo Architecture 1816-1940, by Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Jr., was held at the nearby Albright Art Gallery (now known as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery) featuring maps, photographs, models and prints. Two photos known of the post- abandonment Martin House landscape were taken by Gallery photographer Jay Baxtresser circa the year prior to the exhibition. One shows the front yard, including billowing and partially overgrown, albeit still with prairie-esque horizontal habit shrubs, as well wichurana rose or (as identified in earlier photos) Akebia vine (Akebia quinata) fully enveloping the front raised planter wall. [Fig. 103] Vines have also overtaken the architectural features of the library and master bedroom façades. The lawn has been mown and there appears to be some minimal level of maintenance - likely due to William Thorpe. The other Baxtresser photograph features the Barton House presumably still occupied by renters, as a second floor window is open. [Fig. 104] The shrubs surrounding the Barton verandah appear somewhat leggy, even in fall, and in a sense, over-mature. The planting area surrounding the house appears to have shrunken – with grass extending to the base of shrub masses, and the masses themselves appearing to lose their overall horizontal-connectedness as expressed throughout the 1910s and 1920s. Another photograph of the Barton House, contained in the University at Buffalo Archives, Fig. 102, bottom right Conservatory, interior, abandoned, c. 1940. Fig. 101, top right Edibles garden area choked with weeds, looking east, greenhouse on left, c. 1938. Fig. 100, left Margaret Foster, climbing on sumac, near fountain, c. 1934.