martinhouseclr

27 2 // SITE HISTORY & EVOLUTION free from compaction, impervious paving or other unfavorable conditions. Martin’s Parkside land purchase was predated by a November 1902 meeting between Martin, Wright, Martin’s brother William, and representatives from the Larkin Soap Company. Based on this meeting and on associated correspondence, Wright was commissioned to design a small house for Martin’s sister, Delta, and her husband, George Barton (The George Barton House) as a provisional assignment. The outcome would determine if Wright was to receive the commissions for both the Larkin Administration Building and Martin’s own house adjacent to the Barton House. 41 Martin’s enthusiasm for Wright’s uniqueness was expressed in a letter to John D. Larkin, in which he described the Barton House experiment and his attempt to persuade Mr. Larkin to hire Wright for the Larkin Administration Building. 42 The commission for the Larkin Administration Building (1904) was not given to Wright until late 1903, and in the interim, Wright spent much of his time working through Barton House matters and developing the ideas that would eventually become the realized composition of the Martin House. 43 41 Jack Quinan, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House: Architecture as Portraiture, 30. 42 DDM-John D. Larkin, 20 March 1903, Trans. Jack Quinan 2003, Wright-Martin Papers, Archives of the University at Buffalo (WMP-UB). 43 The Larkin Administration Building was demolished in 1950. At some point following Martin’s purchase of the parcels, a 1903 survey of the site was prepared by land surveyor H. T. Buttolph and appears to have served as the basis for Wright’s site plan development. 44 The Buttolph survey includes several adjacent parcels; however, Martin’s diary entry concerning the purchase of the land indicates that, at least his original purchase, included only +/-1.3 acres and apparently consisted of the Barton House and Martin House parcels alone, without the Gardener’s Cottage plot. The total acreage of the lands including the Gardener’s Cottage parcel nears 1.5 acres. 45 [Fig. 13] Though Darwin Martin was enthusiastic about Wright’s unconventional style, he was not without reservation concerning certain eccentric characteristics. One early indication of the 44 The Buttolph survey includes only the year in the drawing title block (UB Archives #22.0_27-1). A second survey, described in the UB Archives as authored by Buttolph (#22.0_27-2) and also dated 1903, includes the plan for the house as constructed, including design changes to the fountain wall and a cold-frame against the south wall of the greenhouse. This suggests the drawing was modified after 1903 as these features were not developed in the design until 1904. The CLR authors believe that this survey is likely a tracing of the Buttolph survey with existing conditions shown, potentially completed by O.S. Lang in 1904 or early 1905, and eventually used to prepare Lang’s more official survey plot map of April 1905 (UB Archives #22.0_28-1), also believed to be a record of existing conditions at the time. 45 It is believed that Martin ultimately owned as much as 2 acres of contiguous property at the site, consisting of the main house parcel, the Barton parcel, the Gardener’s parcel, a “garden plot” on Jewett Parkway, and portions of land originally appearing to be part of the 143 Jewett property. Fig. 12 1900 Sanborn map, Buffalo, Sheet 413. Martin initial 1.3 acre purchase delineated in red.