martinhouseclr

170 DARWIN D. MARTIN HOUSE // CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT his personal diary an appreciation for its bloom colors, its increasing maturity, and expresses feelings of longing for its spring show when away from the house. And much like a furniture chest within a house, Martin also uses the landscape as a vessel for objects of his sentimentality towards nature and his childhood – establishing trees taken from Bouckville or plucked from the rural woods by his son, or received as gifts from colleagues and friends. The designed landscape established within Olmsted’s garden suburb was, by many accounts, an ‘Arcadian venue’ for Martin’s reconnection with nature. 19 The garden remained more or less as designed in Griffin’s 1905 Plan of Plantings and the Floricycle plan throughout the Martins’ tenure. The 1.5-acre property was cared for by a successive series of gardeners, though, as steward of the designed landscape, Martin himself was disposed to some pruning and maintenance – particularly after his retirement. This pursuit must have given him pleasure; even during the severe decline in his health leading to his eventual death, he notes these efforts in his journal. Stemming from her equal love of horticulture and gardening, Isabelle Martin appears to have in many ways ‘curated’ the perennial collections, making every effort to 19 The phrase ‘Arcadian venue’ is adapted from Christopher Vernon’s description of Griffin’s design philosophy. See section: Background: Walter Burley Griffin, the Prairie Spirit, and a Conservation Ethos, and, Christopher Vernon, ‘A legitimate art distinctive of Australia and Australia alone’: The Griffins’ contribution to the formation of an Australian landscape design ethos, Landscape Review, Lincoln University School of Landscape Architecture, 1997:3, 4. bring the outdoors indoors through her expert and remarkably composed flower arrangements. 20 Additionally, during the Martins’ tenure there is no evidence or indication that shrubs were clipped or sheared in a way that presented them as unnatural - an affirmation on Wright’s ideas concerning honesty-in-materials and Griffin’s landscape design convictions. Despite the ‘unkept’ appearance, the landscape was carefully managed for decades by full-time gardeners, an engaged owner, and visited frequently over the years by Wright himself. It is perhaps an authentication of the importance of Darwin and Isabelle Martin in promoting the compositional and landscape genius of Wright and Griffin among their contemporaries. National Register Modification Recommendations There are several modifications to the existing National Register nomination data that are recommended based on the research, inventory and analysis performed as part of this Cultural Landscape Report. These recommendations are primarily suggested as changes to the 20 As regrettable to the CLR authors as it is, nearly all of the abundant historical documentation is associated with Darwin Martin alone. The correspondence, diaries, and drawings are almost exclusively pertaining to Darwin’s dealings with Wright’s studio and his own feelings about the landscape. It is strongly recommended that more focused research be performed to determine and authenticate Isabelle Martin’s association with the garden – which is almost certainly more than is being conveyed by the examined material. nomination’s Statement of Significance in order to reflect additional areas of significance and their rational. The recommendations are suggested independently from any resultant landscape treatments implemented as part of the Treatment portion of this CLR. Where appropriate, recommended modifications have also been identified that should either be made to the National Historic Landmark nomination form, or that support a more consistent parity between the NR and NHL nominations. The recommendations include: 1. Landscape as a Contributing Feature The existing NR Statement of Significance should be revised to include the significance of the landscape as a contributing feature of the already significant historic property, including the provided rational and background as necessary to support such inclusions. 2. Martin Significance under Evaluation Criteria B The existing NR Statement of Significance should be revised to include local and state significance of the property as the private residence and garden of Darwin D. Martin, within NR evaluation criteria B. The rational and background for this area of significance is already loosely suggested by descriptions within the existing nomination (the NHL being more robust). However, the