Graycliff

The Graycliff estate was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) and was built between 1926 and 1929. It is located about 20 minutes south of downtown Buffalo, New York at 6472 Old Lake Shore Rd. in Derby, New York.

History

The Graycliff estate was the summer home of Isabelle R. Martin (1869-1945) and her husband, Buffalo entrepreneur Darwin D. Martin (1865–1935). Graycliff was the second of two complexes Frank Lloyd Wright designed for the couple; the first was the Darwin D. Martin House, their city residence. By the time of Graycliff’s commission, Wright and the Martins had been personal friends as well as clients for over twenty years.

In the early years of their long relationship, Darwin Martin was actively involved with the selection of Frank Lloyd Wright as the architect for the Larkin Administration Building, Wright's first major commercial project. Martin was an executive with the Larkin Soap Company, and Wright also designed houses in Buffalo for fellow Larkin Co. executives W. R. Heath and Walter V. Davidson. Between the time of the completion of the Martin House Complex and the construction of Graycliff grew a great long-term friendship; the Martins provided financial assistance and other support to Wright as his career unfolded.

Isabelle R. Martin was the client of record for Graycliff, and it was designed by Wright for her pleasure. Graycliff is one of the most ambitious and extensive summer estates Wright ever designed.

Graycliff is one of only five of Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs that were built between 1925 and 1935. Graycliff is also the only Wright designed structure built between Taliesin (1914) and Fallingwater (1936) using stone. Wright believed stone to be the only true building material and may be why he insisted the Martins incorporate it at Graycliff.

Design

Graycliff is a complex of three buildings set high on a bluff with views of Lake Erie, and Canada beyond. The buildings, in Wright’s Organic Architecture style, are set amongst extensive grounds and gardens also designed by Wright. The largest building, the Isabelle R. Martin House, features spacious cantilevered balconies, expansive terraces, and “ribbons” of windows that allow the experience of nature from within and through the house. On clear cool summer days the spray of Niagara Falls in Canada is visible through the framed opening created by the cantilevered upper bridge and the stone veneered massing at each end of the home. The lower section with its glass walls becomes a transparent pavilion-like center.

The Foster House, the mid-sized of the buildings, was originally designed as a garage with apartment above for the chauffeur and his family. In 1929 the Martins owned a Pierce-Arrow touring car as well as a Detroit Electric car. After their first summer in residence, the Martins asked Wright to alter and expand the building. After this work was complete, the Martin’s daughter Dorothy, son-in-law James Foster, and children Margaret and Darwin Martin Foster spent many happy summers in residence.

Like the Isabelle R. Martin House, the Foster House has strong horizontal lines echoing the lake beyond, cantilevered balconies, and many windows. Garden walls, composed of the same stone and stucco as the Foster and Isabelle Martin Houses, enchance the horizontal planes of the architecture.

The smallest building of the complex is known as the Heat Hut. Like the other two buildings, it is constructed of stone found at the lake’s edge; warm ochre stucco, and sumounted by a striking red cedar shingle roof.

The gardens and grounds feature water elements designed by Wright, including a porte cochere that extends from the Isabelle R. Martin House, cantilevering beyond its stone pier supports over a stone basin from which water flows into a large irregularly shaped pool. This creates an illusion of the lake flowing through the house. To the south, a broad esplanade connects the terrace of the Isabelle R. Martin House to the cliff and lake. Other architectural features of the landscape include a sunken garden, a hidden garden, and stone walls in a “waterfall” pattern. Not surpisingly, it was Darwin Martin who first introduced Wright to Niagara Falls, just a few miles to the north. A tennis court designed by Wright is located toward the rear of the property.

Restoration

Although the family lost much of its fortune due to the Great Depression and was forced to abandon the city house in 1937, they kept Graycliff, and returned annually until 1943.

The property was purchased from the Martin family by the Piarists, a Catholic teaching order, in 1951. The Piarist Fathers, from Hungary, established a boarding school on the grounds as well as Calasanctius, a private high school for gift children in Buffalo. Although they added two structures to Wright’s original design, all Wright-designed buildings were left intact. Eventually the enrollments dwindled until the schools were closed, and the number of priests in residence also dwindled. Finally in late 1996, the Piarists decided they could no longer afford to maintain the property, and put it up for sale.

Soon after, a grass-roots group of individuals banded together for the express purpose of purchasing the property, which was threatened with destruction thanks to its prime lakeside location and attractiveness to private developers. The hardy group formed the non-profit Graycliff Conservancyin order to buy the property, restore it to its original majestic condition, and keep it open to the public.

This effort, aided by scores of volunteers from throughout the community, has undertaken extensive restoration (both to remove the non-Wright additions and to restore the now eighty year old buildings,) created an active schedule of public tours, and is a true grass-roots success story.

The Graycliff Conservancy is the recipient of a Save America’s Treasures grant from the US Department of the Interior, and has received many awards for its work. It has succesfully completed Phases 0, 1 and 2 of restoration; Phase IIIA in underway. Graycliff is now a New York State Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Links

Graycliff is a member of the Great Lakes Seaway Trail

Buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright in the Buffalo area:

Related Architectural Masterpieces in the Buffalo, NY area: