martinhouseclr

26 DARWIN D. MARTIN HOUSE // CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT entry on his visit to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris – the main botanical garden of France. Martin’s Meeting of Wright By 1900, Parkside had become a very desirable place to live. Many prominent Buffalo families had moved there. Many prominent local architects were also hired to build homes for wealthy owners. 32 Martin was, by all records, quite content with his house on Summit Avenue and had developed a garden there along with Isabelle and his father. Given his rising responsibilities at the Larkin Soap Company and rising wealth, it was not long before he would hire a prominent architect of his own. It was in 1902, after Chicago-based attorney W. R. Heath joined the Larkin Company, that Martin was introduced to Frank Lloyd Wright’s work. 33 Upon learning of Wright, while in Chicago, Martin traveled with his brother to Wright’s office on September 13, 1902. As Wright was not there he met Walter Burley Griffin, his office superintendent 34 Both Darwin and his brother were seemingly fascinated by Wright’s recent work in Oak Park and Martin was also apparently similarly charmed by Griffin upon his first visit to 32 “History of Parkside,” Parkside Community Association. 33 Quinan, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House: Architecture as Portraiture, 27. 34 Quinan, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House: Architecture as Portraiture, 28. the studio. 35 Griffin was a particularly talented and ultimately a very successful architect, landscape architect and urban planner in his own right, who ultimately established his own successful practice and won the competition to design Australia’s capital, Canberra. The months following Martin’s first engagement with Frank Lloyd Wright were primarily concerned with explorations of designing a building for the Larkin Soap Company. On 11 December 1902, Darwin D. Martin purchased a handful of lots intended for a new house for himself and his sister Delta (Barton) on the corner of Summit and Jewett, totaling 1-1/3 rd of an acre. The purchase price was $14,000 and was one of the most prominent lots available at the major corners along Jewett Parkway. 36 The lot was admired by Wright for its spaciousness and was much preferred over Martin’s lot on Oakland Place. 37 Wright felt that the Oakland lot, at a comparatively narrow 75-feet in width at the street, was too confining and unless the adjacent houses were set back some distance from the property lines allowing Martin to benefit from the adjacent landscapes, it would have been “a pity” to build there. 38 35 Jack Quinan, June 9, 2014 (10:24 a.m.), General thoughts about DDM and WGB, Basecamp CLR Project Archive. 36 Darwin D. Martin, Memorandum, December 11, 1902. 37 DDM-WEM, 10 December 1902, Trans. Jack Quinan 2003, Wright-Martin Papers, Archives of the University at Buffalo (WMP-UB). 38 WEM-DDM, 22 October 1902, Trans. Jack Quinan 2003, WMP-UB. 1903 - 1909 MARTIN HOUSE LANDSCAPE DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION By the time of Martin’s acquisition, the parcels at the corner of Jewett Parkway and Summit Avenue were bounded along their street frontages by rapidly maturing elm trees, along with what appears to be a single maple tree (likely Red or Silver) positioned on Jewett Parkway at the corner. Photographic evidence indicates that street trees along Jewett Parkway were planted prior to street trees along Summit Avenue by at least some ten years. Indeed, the layout and construction of Jewett (1874) preceded its deeding over to the city of Buffalo (1884) by a decade. 39 Summit Avenue was not completed and deeded as a right-of-way until 1892. 40 [Fig. 12] The street trees, planted sometimes less than 30 feet on-center, were aided in their growth by the relatively virgin agricultural soils 39 National Register of Historic Places, Parkside East Historic District. 40National Register of Historic Places, Parkside East Historic District.