Hidden · Buffalo, United States
Darwin D. Martin House
Frank Lloyd Wright's six-building Prairie-style estate in Buffalo, which was abandoned, cut into apartments, partly demolished and then rebuilt over three decades.
A six-building estate that Wright called his opus.
The Martin House is a historic house museum in the Parkside East Historic District of Buffalo, a neighborhood laid out by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. It is the main house of an estate of six buildings designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for the businessman Darwin D. Martin and his wife Isabelle. The estate also has a pergola, a conservatory, a carriage house, a gardener's cottage and the smaller Barton House, plus a newer glass-walled visitor center, the Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch Pavilion.
The buildings are Prairie style, with Roman brick, concrete trim and red roof tiles, arranged along two perpendicular axes. The main house is cross-shaped, with overlapping roofs and "tree of life" art glass windows, and its two levels and basement cover about 15,000 square feet, with furniture designed by Wright. Walter Burley Griffin landscaped the grounds, including a floricycle garden planted so that something is in bloom all season. Wright called the house his "opus" for some 50 years, and it is a National Historic Landmark and a New York State Historic Site.
From family compound to apartments, then back again.
Martin joined the Larkin Company as a soap salesman at 13 and rose to senior executive. On his brother's recommendation he hired Wright in 1902. The Barton House for his sister came first, and the main house began on June 20, 1904. Wright took 15 months to revise the first-floor plan, the two men exchanged hundreds of letters, and construction ran 15 months past its first estimated completion.
After financial trouble and Martin's death in 1935, the family left in 1937 and the house stood empty for almost two decades. The city seized it in 1946, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo bought it in 1951, and in the mid-1950s a new owner divided the main house into apartments and demolished the carriage house, conservatory and pergola. The University at Buffalo bought the estate in 1967.
Restoration began in the 1990s with the university, the state and the Martin House Restoration Corporation. The Barton House and gardener's cottage were reacquired, the three lost structures were rebuilt and the visitor center was added. The work was finished in 2019, over three decades.
The house and its grounds.
Practical notes.
Before you go.
Who designed the Darwin D. Martin House?
Frank Lloyd Wright designed the six-building estate for Darwin D. Martin and his wife Isabelle. The main house was built between 1903 and 1907.
Is everything at the Martin House original?
No. The pergola, carriage house and conservatory were demolished in the mid-1950s and have been rebuilt, and the visitor center is a newer addition.
Who designed the gardens at the Martin House?
Walter Burley Griffin, an associate of Wright, landscaped the grounds as part of the overall design. The modern floricycle includes about 20,000 plantings.
How long did the restoration take?
It began in the 1990s and was completed in 2019, about three decades of work.
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