The Graycliff estate was designed by

Frank Lloyd Wright Frank Lloyd Wright Sr. (June 8, 1867 – April 9, 1959) was an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. He designed List of Frank Lloyd Wright works, more than 1,000 structures over a creative period of 70 years. Wright played a key ...

in 1926, and built between 1926 and 1931. It is approximately 17 miles southwest of downtown

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...

, at 6472 Old Lake Shore Road in the

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

of Highland-on-the-Lake, with a mailing address of

Derby Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...

. Situated on a bluff overlooking

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( ) is the fourth-largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and also has the shortest avera ...

with sweeping views of downtown Buffalo and the

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

shore, ''Note:'' This includes an
''Accompanying photographs''
/ref> it is one of the most ambitious and extensive summer estates Wright designed.Arlene Sanderson & Jack Quinan, ''Wright Sites'', pp.84–85, Princeton Architectural Press; 2001 It is now fully restored and operates as a historic house museum, open for guided tours year round (with reduced activity during the winter). There is also a summer Market at Graycliff, free and open to the public on select Thursday evenings. Graycliff Conservancy is run by Executive Director Anna Kaplan, who was hired in 2019.

History

Graycliff was the summer home of Isabelle Reidpath 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 being the Martin House Complex, 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. Between the time of the completion of the Martin House Complex and the construction of Graycliff grew a great long-term friendship, to the extent that the Martins provided financial assistance and other supportJack Quinan, ''Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House'', p.216, Princeton Architectural Press; 2004 to Wright as his career unfolded. In the early years of their long relationship, Darwin Martin was actively involved with selecting Frank Lloyd Wright as the architect for the

Larkin Administration Building The Larkin Building was an office building at 680 Seneca Street in Buffalo, New York, United States. Designed in 1903 by Frank Lloyd Wright, it was built in 1904–1906 for the Larkin Soap Company. The building was noted for innovations that ...

, Wright's first major commercial project. Martin was an executive with the Larkin Company, and Wright also designed houses in Buffalo for fellow Larkin Company executives William R. Heath and Walter V. Davidson. Isabelle R. Martin was the client of record for Graycliff, and it was designed by Wright for her pleasure.Brendan Gill, ''Many Masks'', p.320, Da Capo Press; 1998 Graycliff is one of only five of Frank Lloyd Wright's designs that were built between 1925 and 1935, and the only Wright-designed structure built between

Taliesin Taliesin ( , ; 6th century AD) was an early Britons (Celtic people), Brittonic poet of Sub-Roman Britain whose work has possibly survived in a Middle Welsh manuscript, the ''Book of Taliesin''. Taliesin was a renowned bard who is believed to ...

(1925) and

Fallingwater Fallingwater is a Historic house museum, house museum in Stewart Township, Pennsylvania, Stewart Township in the Laurel Highlands of Greater Pittsburgh, southwestern Pennsylvania, United States. Designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright, i ...

(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. Graycliff is considered to be one of Wright's most important mid-career works in his Organic Style.

Restoration

Although the Martin family lost much of its fortune due to the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

and was forced to abandon the city house in 1937, they kept Graycliff, and returned annually until 1943. The property was purchased from the family by the

Piarists The Piarists (), officially named the Order of Poor Clerics Regular of the Mother of God of the Pious Schools (), abbreviated SchP, is a religious order of clerics regular of the Catholic Church founded in 1617 by Spanish priest Joseph Calasanz ...

, a Roman Catholic teaching order, in 1951. The Piarist Fathers, from

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, established a boarding school on the grounds, as well as Calasanctius, a private high school for gifted children in Buffalo, named after the order's founder. Although they added two structures to Wright's original design, all Wright-designed buildings were left intact. Eventually enrollment dwindled and the schools closed; the number of priests in residence also declined dramatically. Finally in late 1997, the Piarists decided they could no longer afford to maintain the property, and put it up for sale. Soon after, a group of concerned individuals purchased the property, which was threatened with destruction due to its prime lakeside location and attractiveness to private developers. The group formed the non-profit Graycliff Conservancy in order to buy the property, restore it to its original condition, and open it to the public. This effort, aided by volunteers from throughout the community, has undertaken extensive restoration, both to remove the non-Wright additions and to restore the nearly ninety-year-old buildings, and has created a schedule of public tours. The Graycliff Conservancy is the recipient of a

Save America's Treasures Save America's Treasures is a United States federal government initiative to preserve and protect historic buildings, arts, and published works. It is a public–private partnership between the U.S. National Park Service and the National Tru ...

grant from the

US Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources. It also administers programs relating t ...

, and has received many awards for its work. Graycliff is a New York State Landmark and is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

. In November 2024, the Graycliff Conservancy began construction on a new visitor center. As part of the new construction plan, the estate temporarily closed and is expected to resume tours in March 2025. The new visitor center is due to be completed in 2026, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Frank Lloyd Wright's design for the Graycliff estate.

Design

Graycliff is a complex of three buildings integrated within an landscape. It is situated high on a bluff with views of

across to

. In Wright's

Organic Architecture Organic architecture is a philosophy of architecture which promotes harmony between human habitation and the natural world. This is achieved through design approaches that aim to be sympathetic and well-integrated with a site, so buildings, furn ...

style, are set amidst extensive grounds and gardens also designed by Wright. The largest building, the main "Isabelle R. Martin House," is perhaps most remarkable for its two stone veneered sections framing a central pavilion-like center of transparent glass walls, allowing visitors to actually see through the building itself to the lake beyond, revolutionary for a 1926 design. It also features spacious

cantilever A cantilever is a rigid structural element that extends horizontally and is unsupported at one end. Typically it extends from a flat vertical surface such as a wall, to which it must be firmly attached. Like other structural elements, a cantilev ...

ed balconies, expansive terraces, and "ribbons" of windows that allow the experience of nature from within and through the house. On especially clear days the spray of

Niagara Falls Niagara Falls is a group of three waterfalls at the southern end of Niagara Gorge, spanning the Canada–United States border, border between the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario in Canada and the state of New York (s ...

is visible through the framed opening created by the cantilevered upper bridge and the stone veneered massing at each end of the home. The Foster House was originally designed as a garage, with an apartment above for the

chauffeur A chauffeur () is a person employed to drive a passenger motor vehicle, especially a luxury vehicle such as a large sedan or a limousine. Initially, such drivers were often personal employees of the vehicle owner, but this has changed to s ...

and his family. In 1929 the Martins owned a

Pierce-Arrow The Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company was an American Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer based in Buffalo, New York, active from 1901 to 1938. Although best known for its expensive Luxury vehicle, luxury cars, Pierce-Arrow also manuf ...

touring car as well as a

Detroit Electric The Detroit Electric was an electric car produced by the Anderson Electric Car Company in Detroit, Michigan. The company built 13,000 electric cars from 1907 to 1939. The marque was revived in 2008 by Albert Lam, former Group CEO of the Lotus En ...

car. After their first summer in residence, the Martins asked Wright to alter and expand the building. Once complete, the Martins' daughter Dorothy, together with her husband James Foster and their children Margaret and Darwin Martin Foster, spent many happy summers in residence. Like the Martin House, the Foster House has strong horizontal lines echoing the lake beyond, cantilevered balconies, and numerous windows. 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, ocher stucco, and a red cedar shingle roof. Garden walls, composed of the same stone and stucco as the Foster and Martin Houses, enhance the horizontal planes of the architecture. The gardens and grounds feature water elements designed by Wright, including a

porte-cochère A porte-cochère (; ; ; ) is a doorway to a building or courtyard, "often very grand," through which vehicles can enter from the street or a covered porch-like structure at a main or secondary entrance to a building through which originally a ...

that extends from Martin House, cantilevering beyond its stone pier supports over a stone basin from which water flows into a large irregularly shaped pool. This was intended to create an illusion of the lake flowing through the house. On the west side, a broad

esplanade An esplanade or promenade is a long, open, level area, usually next to a river or large body of water, where people may walk. The historical definition of ''esplanade'' was a large, open, level area outside fortress or city walls to provide cle ...

connects the terrace to the cliff and lake. The esplanade was designed to carry water, pumped from Lake Erie, down its length and over the bluffs, completing the illusion of water flowing through. Deemed financially extravagant, this feature was halted after only the esplanade itself was completed. Other architectural features of the landscape include a sunken garden, a hidden garden, and stone walls in a "waterfall" pattern. Not surprisingly, it was Darwin Martin who first introduced Wright to Niagara Falls, less than to the north. The extensive of grounds and gardens were also designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, with one of the few, if not only, landscape designs in his own hand. These include a tennis court designed by Wright, as well as trees and shrubs designed to complement the architecture. Additional significant design-work was done by

Ellen Biddle Shipman Ellen Biddle Shipman (; November 5, 1869 – March 27, 1950) was an American landscape architect known for her formal gardens and lush planting style. Along with Beatrix Farrand and Marian Cruger Coffin, she dictated the style of the time and s ...

, one of the early and renowned women landscape architects, and one of the creators of the

Arts & Crafts The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America. Initiat ...

and

American Craftsman American Craftsman is an American domestic architectural style, inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, which included interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts, beginning in the last years of the 19th century. ...

style landscape design, supplementing those of Wright with colorful flowers and a picking garden.

Gallery

File:Isabelle R. Martin House (4).JPG, Rear of Graycliff File:View from Isabelle's Balcony, Graycliff.jpg, View from Isabelle's balcony File:South Terrace, Graycliff.jpg, South Terrace File:Stone Walls, Graycliff.jpg, Stone walls at Graycliff File:View thru Kitchen Window, Graycliff.jpg, View through the kitchen window File:Diamond Window, Graycliff.jpg, Diamond window

References

External links

* {{Frank Lloyd Wright Culture of Buffalo, New York Frank Lloyd Wright buildings Historic house museums in New York (state) Houses completed in 1926 Houses in Erie County, New York Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state) Museums in Buffalo, New York Museums in Erie County, New York National Register of Historic Places in Buffalo, New York