martinhouseclr

34 DARWIN D. MARTIN HOUSE // CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT on May 14, 1904. 61 [Fig. 18 & 19] Ever demanding and punctual, Martin had asked Wright in late May 1903 for the final driveway location, so that contractor O.S. Lang could begin excavation and base preparation. [Fig. 20] Wright responds by requesting more time and noting that the request would require the preparation of a “complete block plan which is only in pencil at the moment.” 62 The block plan perhaps referred to, which includes a title block denoting excavation and elevation matters, ultimately seems to become the site plan base on which the complete landscape design begins to take shape sometime in late 1904. The timeline of excavations around the site and the still forthcoming planting plan, suggests that the block plan was either later modified to include the landscape design or served as the foundation on which is was conceived through 1904. 63 While Martin did not officially receive any formal planting plans until early 1905, the block plan drawing seems to represent one of the 61 The memorandum of the May 14 planting includes a specific notation of “inches circumference” but the preceding number is illegible. Martin would have perhaps only noted the tree’s size if it was substantial – which it was, if it references the elm shown in the August 1904 photograph. 62 FLW-DDM, 23 May 1904, Trans. Jack Quinan 2003, WMP- UB. 63 The Block Plan held in the FLWF Archives seems to serve dual roles. It includes proposed grade notations at several locations and a note in the title block setting excavation depth reference to the more or less complete Barton House. The plan also includes a substantial conceptual landscape arrangement throughout the entire property, which according to correspondence on 26 July of 1904, Wright refused to even work on yet. earliest complete visions for tying the house and designed landscape together at a more detailed and larger scale. Notably, it also shows the first indication of the half-circle planting design concept around the Martin verandah that would become the hemi-cycle and, later, the Floricycle feature. The block plan includes all building footprints with axis lines in red pencil continuing across the property showing axial relationships between buildings. [Fig. 21] The planting arrangement on the plan includes both individual plant locations and plant massing around most areas of the house, the general outdoor circulation routes and pathways, bounded garden spaces, and site walls. The plan indicates a dense arc of plant massing around the Martin verandah, with what appears to express complete vegetative screening to the back of sidewalk at the street corner. The front yard area also includes a substantial amount of plant material, massed heavily along the west side of the driveway and continuing east in clusters to connect to the hemi-cycle arc. The plan features the diamond-shaped design and piers in the fountain wall, which was not apparent on the earlier “preliminary first floorplan”. 64 Martin and Wright correspond on the design of several other site features in early 1904. Many 64 The piers and wall were present in a detailed layout of the foundation in May, before the presumed date of the block plan drawing. So, it is unclear when the wall changed to the diamond design, but it was most certainly settled by the June 1904 revision date of the garage and conservatory foundation layout plans. Fig. 18, top First tree (American elm) planted on northeast side of Barton House, 12 May 1904. Photo c. Sep 1904. Fig. 19, bottom left American elm planted near west lot line, c. Aug 1904. Fig. 20, bottom right Foundation for garage and conservatory, c. July 1904.