martinhouseclr

76 DARWIN D. MARTIN HOUSE // CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT 1910 - 1929 A MATURING DOMESTIC LANDSCAPE The Martins’ clear love of the natural wonders of the countryside and their horticultural interest does not appear to wane as they settled into Jewett Parkway. Martin’s diary records several entries through the first few years of this new decade, noting his visits to Rochester to see the lilacs in Highland Park and drives to the countryside near his childhood home of Bouckville where he records that his son Darwin “took home [a] tiny hemlock from the woods near old farm.” 172 173 In 1913, Martin adds that a Noble Fir tree was given to him as a personal gift by “Mr. Curt G Pfeiffer” and planted. 174 The period beginning in 1910 also reveals that the Martins had become familiar with the intricacies of their designed landscape and had begun to develop an understanding of its shortcomings. As plants (particularly shrubs) reached reasonably mature habit and form, and took on their character, the Martins appear to realize that their corner lot was not affording them the privacy they desired. Perhaps in part due to 172 DDM, Memorandum, 14-15 May 1910, MFP-UB 173 DDM, Memorandum, 30 May 1910, MFP-UB 174 DDM, Memorandum, 14 March 1914, MFP-UB. The tree was noted as “Abies Noblis,” which is a known synonym for Abies procera, or the noble fir. the filling out of lots in Parkside and increased business of the streetscape, combined with the intense growth of the automobile during the first decade of twentieth century, it was decided that something must be done to increase privacy along the Summit Avenue frontage. The 1910 Griffin Shrub Border In October of 1910, upon Darwin Martin’s request, a plan was developed by Walter Burley Griffin to provide a vegetative buffer and screen along the back of the Summit Avenue sidewalk, from the Barton House front walkway, south to the intersection with the apex of the already existing Floricycle. The details behind commissioning of the plan are unclear, as Griffin was out of Wright’s employ at the time and working independently in Chicago. No correspondence between Martin and Griffin outside of Wright’s studio is known to exist. Entitled ‘Grounds of Dwelling,’ ‘Plantings,’ the plan is dated 15 October 1910 and consists of one blueprint drawing showing a naturalistic, yet linear hedge-screen style mass of plantings (shrubs and small trees) parallel to the west side of the sidewalk. [Fig. 55] The drawing also indicated the limits of the Floricycle area with two parallel half-circles separated by approximately ten feet. 175 The back of the plan includes hand 175 The lines representing the limits of the extant Floricycle show the outer circle tangent (alignment) into the masonry piers of the house terrace (as opposed to the inner circle tangent written note in pencil, “Planting Walter Burley Griffin”. The plan also shows garden features (either additional wall edges or more formal garden arrangement) within the Summit Terrace that did not exist except in early, never realized Wright plans. The majority of plantings are labeled with symbols; a key is not included on the plan nor has one been located elsewhere in the archival material. The selected written names of plants on the plan include Althea [aka, Rose of Sharon] and Thornapple [ Crataegus ]. The remaining plants are identified only by key symbol but appear to include junipers or other evergreens (represented with a star symbol) and several different types of deciduous shrubs. The symbols appear to be developed from a combination of abbreviations for both the Latin name and the common name. For example, “RR=RR-15” means ‘15 quantity of Rosa rugosa = Ramanas Rose,’ and “LF=FH-10” meaning ‘10 quantity of Lonicera fragrantissima = Fragrant Honeysuckle.’ Following this pattern, much of the unidentified plant material on the plan has been identified through comparison of another planting key of Griffin’s developed during the same period. 176 The plant key reveals that Griffin designed shown on the Feb 1905 planting plan and also, to a lesser extent the ca. spring 1906 Floricycle plan unit layout). It reflects the pen markup on the field blueprint version of the Feb 1905 plan showing tangent into the piers at the inner circle, which appears to have been the ultimate design intent or the preferred alignment at installation. 176 Along with an analysis of the first letters of matching Latin and common names, a plant key from another Walter Burley Griffin project (ca. 1910-1912, R.D. Griffin house, Edwardsville, Site History and Evolution