martinhouseclr

29 2 // SITE HISTORY & EVOLUTION I have begun to work on the Jewett Avenue property and find a difficulty at the outset which should be determined and I write to ask if you find an objection to squaring your building with the Barton’s, disregarding the Jewett Avenue frontage as far as a parallel is concerned, thus [Fig. a pen sketch of full Martin complex within the letter] No two of the lot lines are parallel and the front of the house might break away gently in several offsets to coincide approximately with the slope of the street. I think it is important that the Barton House and your own stand square with regard to each other, leaving square angles in the court between, barn and all. 48 Though Wright’s description of the existing houses along Jewett being parallel to the right- of-way was largely inaccurate, Martin agreed with Wright that there “was no alternative but to place all the buildings in relation to one another and to nothing else.” 49 The plan depicted in Wright’s May 1903 sketch shows the general 48 FLW-DDM, May 11, 1903., Trans. Zakery Steele 2014, WMP- UB. 49 DDM-FLW, 14 May 1903, Trans. Jack Quinan 2003, WMP- UB. In reality, the houses along both Jewett Parkway and Summit Avenue were generally square with one another, albeit set at varying distances from the street. Each house orientation typically relates square to one street of the closest street corner. One nearby exception to this is 153 Jewett Parkway, built circa 1900 which is set perpendicular to the road and at an incongruous angle to all adjacent properties. Incidentally, the house is more or less square to the Martin complex. arrangement of structures on the property as they relate to one another in the final design plans and as constructed, with a few notable exceptions. [Fig. 14] First, the pergola is missing and in its place at the north axial end of the main Martin House is a walled “court,” and second, the entire composition is shifted west from its eventual location. The garage also appears to be truncated in the drawing, presumably carrying on into adjacent lots at the northwest corner of the site, which are also owned by Martin and eventually constitute the Greenhouse and Gardener’s Cottage. Aside from the prior correspondence critiquing Wright’s circulation and “exteriors,” Martin’s first written mention of the landscape at the site was on August 18, 1903, in a letter almost entirely dealing with bids and materials costs for the Barton House. Martin noted to Wright that he would like a “line of suggestion on the planting of the lot at an early date,” as he intended to have it planted, as much as possible, in the soon to arrive fall of 1903. 50 Such a plan does not arrive from Wright however. In late 1903, presumably as discussions about both the interior and site layout and features of the property progressed, Martin wrote Wright with a request on specific changes he would like to see made to the house and the overall site composition. The letter, dated December 26, 1903, explicitly separates Darwin and Isabelle’s desires with respect to the arrangement and the 50 DDM-FLW, 18 August 1903, Trans. Jack Quinan 2003, WMP- UB. landscape, noting, among other items: Do not destroy the east view from the livingroom by the verandah. Move the front walk east to front of front door. Omit the terraces around the house. Grass instead of cement terrace will look more domestic and less publistic … So says Mrs. Martin. D.D.M. says: Move the pergola east to widen the garden somewhat. I presume it would jar Mr. Wright somewhat not to have the pergola end at the corner of the barn. Moving it east would cause it to end at the Barton wall, maybe, but we want a garden. We do not want the whole thing a lawn. 51 The letter seems to refer or relate to one of the earliest extensive site plan drawings showing the arrangement of the complete composition on the property, which also includes the first floor layout of the house, the pergola, the garage and the Barton house (under construction at this time). 52 51 DDM-FLW, 26 December 1903, Trans. Jack Quinan 2003, WMP-UB. 52 The date of the “Preliminary first floor plan” has been studied extensively by scholars of the Martin House and its architectural design, most notably Jack Quinan. The date of the