Bird’s-Eye View of Spectacular Darwin Martin House

June 8th will be the 150th birthday of world famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright. There are over 500 structures that he designed still standing around the world from homes to museums, churches, office buildings and even mausoleums.  And we're lucky here in Buffalo because second only to Chicago, Buffalo has more Frank Lloyd Wright-designed structures than any other city in the world.

People come to Buffalo from all over the world to see such structures as the Graycliff mansion along Lake Erie in Derby, his rowing boathouse and the Blue Sky Mausoleum in Forest Lawn Cemetery.  He designed a filling station specifically meant to be built in Buffalo, but never was.  A replica was built though and is on display at the Pierce Arrow Museum.

Wright designed the headquarters for the Larkin Soap Company on Seneca Street, but that building was demolished in 1950.  He also built a number of private homes for executives of the Larkin Company.

Wright took everything into consideration in his designs including furniture, lighting fixtures, windows, landscaping and even the location where the structure would be built. There is no structure in Buffalo that better illustrates that than the Darwin Martin House.

Located on Jewett Parkway, the Darwin Martin House is one of his Prairie-style homes.  He took four years to design it and it turned out to be a complex of six buildings built to Darwin Martin's specifications.

Martin's dream was to have a house big enough so that his four siblings and his father would come live with him in Buffalo.  Only his sister and her husband ever actually did.

If you've never had the chance to see the Darwin Martin House for yourself, here is a spectacular view of the Buffalo landmark from a drone.  It gives you an idea of the scope of the property just a few blocks from Main Street.