martinhouseclr

99 2 // SITE HISTORY & EVOLUTION with the movement of the cedars to Graycliff in April 1929, this idea is once again confirmed by a letter to Wright in early 1929 concerning the Graycliff landscape. The letter brings Wright’s attention to an article in National Geographic magazine showing a Swedish garden labyrinth, ending, “Shall we have one?” 236 The closing of what began as a peaceful and celebratory decade was an unforgiving episode for the Martins. Firstly, Darwin Martin’s brother Frank died in Florida during July of 1927. 237 In 1928 Martin suffered a minor stroke, the first in a series of strokes extending out to the year preceding his death in 1935. Then in February 1929, Martin’s brother in law George Barton passed away, leaving him to mournfully wonder in a letter to Wright what should be done with the Barton House. 238 Martin’s sister, Delta Barton, eventually left the house in 1931 and it was rented out. 239 Finally, the market declines beginning in September and culminating in the infamous crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday, devastatingly hit Martin’s financial resources at the end of the decade. In his 2004 book, Wright scholar and former Martin House Senior Curator Jack Quinan notes that Martin was worth at least $2.5 million in 1929, yet after the crash “he informed Wright that he did not 236 DDM-FLW, 16 April 1929, WMP-UB. 237 DDM, Memorandum, 14 July 1927, MFP-UB. 238 Jack Quinan, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House: Architecture as Portraiture, New York, 201. 239 DDM, Memorandum, 1 April 1931, MFP-UB. have $6 to purchase a copy of the architect’s autobiography.” 240 240 Jack Quinan, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House: Architecture as Portraiture, 216. Fig. 81 Barton House verandah as seen from the Summit Terrace, photo c. 1930. Fig. 80 Courtyard viewed from area south of greenhouse, plantings removed, photo c. 1930.