Thursday, May 26, 2022
On our way to Cleveland, OH, we stopped in Derby, NY to take the extended tour of
Graycliff (1926-1931), a summer cottage designed by Frank Lloyd Wright for Darwin and Isabella Martin. Wright had already designed the
Martin House (1903-1905) in Buffalo, NY. The Martin House in Buffalo is in the iconic Prairie style, characterized by its spatial openness, horizontal planes, pier and cantilever construction, and palette of natural colors and materials. For Graycliff, Wright's style was transitioning into his version of Organic Architecture, where the house and the land on which it is located were treated as one entity: the land is enhanced by the house and the house takes its form from the land. The characteristics are the same as with Prairie architecture.
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| Lamp post at the Graycliff parking lot |
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Even the wooden gate of the vegetable garden
incorporates Wright's use of geometric shapes (KSS) |
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| A view of the house and garage from the "picking garden" (KSS) |
From 1951-1997, the property was owned by the Piarist Fathers as their United States headquarters, used as a place of religious study, a retreat, and retirement home. The Piarists are a teaching order whose founder was a 17C Spaniard named Josef Calasanz (in Latin, Calasanz is Calasanctius). Calasanctius is the name the order has given to many of the schools it has founded, including their school, now closed, in Buffalo.
The Piarist Fathers added other buildings to the property, and made some changes to the house; however, little that could not be undone. Newer buildings were removed and Graycliff has been meticulously restored to its 1931 appearance.
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The garage with a second-floor apartment has its original
wooden folding doors with diamond-shaped windows |
At a time when women were relegated to the background, it was Isabelle who worked with Frank Lloyd Wright in designing the house, and in making multiple changes, such as putting the garage doors in the front of the building, rather than on the driveway circle side, where work on the car could be seen from the house terrace.
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Graycliff with the restored pond as designed by Wright;
the Larix sp/Larch tree will be moved in the future,
since here trees were not part of the original design (KSS) |
The stepped cascade from the porte cochere , strem to the pond and the pond were supposed to be a "continuation" of Lake Erie through the house.
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Lake Erie can be seen through the house
(in the lower left in the central window) |
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The geometric pool with steps down to
the stream and the sunken pond |
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The south side of the house with a
cantilevered balcony over a sunken garden
and locally-sourced stone |
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| Octagonal doorknobs for exterior and interior |
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Wright-approved hardware included the
olive knuckle hinge |
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Living Room fireplace and Wright-designed
furniture included the octagonal side
table and plant stand (KSS) |
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For a summer home, split reed stick
furniture was popular; this chair has
cup and magazine holders, which may
be recent innovations (KSS) |
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The Library or "Fern Room" (the ferns are
indoors) with the windows meeting at the
corner; Wright proposed that the window
glass meet at the corner, but the Martins did
not want to spend that much money (KSS) |
The "unbroken" corner window glass is a concept Wright incorporated into
Fallingwater (1936-1937), the house he designed in Mill Run, PA.
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An original mirror in the Fern Room is
supposed to make you feel you are outside |
Mirrors are used throughout the ground floor to make rooms seem larger and brighter.
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| A view back to the Living Room with windows on two sides |
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The Sun Room was originally open as a porch,
but the winds off Lake Erie are too brisk; these windows
are wood-framed, whereas throughout the rest of the
house they are made of metal per Frank Lloyd Wright |
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Original items in the Sun Room include the piano used by
Isabella's companion, Cora, and her granddaughter, Margaret;
Margaret also created the painting (a digital copy here),
and the library table was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright |
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The Terrace with flush-mounted diamond-shaped light fixtures
that are seen throughout the house, and the sunken garden
that is yet to be planted with Mirabilis jalapa/Four O' Clock
flowers, which are abundantly colorful and scented |
The Piarist Fathers extended the terrace over the sunken garden and enclosed it for their chapel.
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The Italian mason who restored all the
stonework of the terrace and walls, left
his signature heart-shaped stone in the wall |
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Dining Room where Isabella Martin decided to move the
dining table in such a way that the room had to be widened |
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Original Wright-designed radiator cover;
copies are used elsewhere in the house (KSS) |
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A place setting of Isabella's favorite china, where the flowers
are in slight relief, which may have been preferred by
Isabella due to her failing vision since her teen years (KSS) |
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Upstairs to Darwin Martin's Room, which he wanted
very plain; but he has access to a balcony |
Originally every bedroom had twin beds, although today some are shown with double beds of the period.
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This is the best-restored bathroom, with tilework that
Mr Martin declined for his own bathroom |
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| The water temperature control went from cold to scalding! |
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| The only original toilet, others are replicas |
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| The view of Lake Erie from the lake-side balcony |
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The view below the balcony of the lakeside lawn
restoration/reconstruction; the house sits on a 60' cliff
that has been slowly eroding and you can see the two
angled projections of the Wright-designed stone bench
of which the far side has fallen onto the beach below |
The Graycliff Conservancy has decided to rebuild the bench "farther inland" to hopefully last another generation.
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The chimney for fireplaces on the the first
and second floors of the house, is made from
local stone which contains iron-oxide from
which Wright wanted the rusting effects |
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| Isabella Martin's Bedroom |
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| Isabella's bedroom with fireplace |
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Isabella ended up with a walk-in closet,
because the space was originally meant
to be her bathroom |
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Isabella wanted her bathroom to have
a window, but in switching it with the
closet space, there was still a problem of
cutting a window through the chimney;
Wright figured out how to do it |
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Cora Herrick's Bedroom; Cora was Isabella's aide
and companion who was a help for Isabella's poor vision |
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For now the Maid's Room is furnished
with examples of what her work might have been |
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The Cook's Room was quite comfortable,
but did not get a radiator cover! |
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Back downstairs in The Pantry,
with displays of the family china, as well
as of the Larkin Company products and
premium items that could be obtained
through the collection of "gift premiums"
received with each purchase |
The Larkin Company (founded 1875) started as a soap company, but expanded into becoming a mail ordere catalog company second only to Sears, Roebuck & Company, in the variety of pproducts offered.
Darwin Martin started as a salesman of soap in New York City at age 12 or 13. In 1880, Martin moved to Buffalo to become the first hired office worker at Larkin (founder John D Larkin had been doing all the office work himself). Working his way up in the company, Martin is credited with developing a card ledger system for tracking sales and maintaining customer accounts. He became the Corporate Secretary in 1915.
Martin was also involved in finding an architect to build the Larkin Administration Building (1904-1906) and decided on Frank Lloyd Wright who had designed his brother's home in Chicago, IL. The Larkin Building included many innovations such as steel-frame construction, a conservatory, air conditioning, built-in desk furniture, a Möller pipe organ, and suspended toilet partitions and bowls (easier cleaning!). Unfortunately, the Larkin Building was demolished in 1950.
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The sink in the pantry was for Isabella
to arrange flowers from her picking garden |
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The Sun Porch was for use of the staff, and included
disappearing or hidden screens by Pella that were
essentially like vinyl roller shades but with the roller
encased (none of which you can see in the photo on the
windows to the left); Pella was able to recreate these screens
for most of the windows in the restoration of Graycliff |
Pella is now integrating hidden screens into their double-hung windows!
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A period stove was donated by the
grandmother of an early tour participant |
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The Jewett Refrigeration Company refrigerator
is original to the house, with a Servel electric
cooling system - it is not an icebox! |
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The sunken Heat Hut once supplied heating and
hot water to the house and the garage/apartment |
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A close-up of the red-stained cedar shingles
that are on all the buildings at Graycliff,
incuding the hexagonal ridge shingles (KSS) |
The Piarist Fathers had replaced the original Creo-Dipt roof shingles (that used creosote to hold the color stain) with asphalt shingles. During restoration of the roofs, the cedar shingles were hand-stained and will need re-staining every few years. They were also able to replicate the Wright-designed hexagonal ridge shingles.
