Darwin D. Martin House, Buffalo (must see)

The Darwin D. Martin House Complex, also known as the Darwin Martin House National Historic Landmark, was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built between 1903 and 1905. Located at 125 Jewett Parkway in Buffalo, New York, it is considered to be one of the most important projects from Wright's Prairie School era, and ranks along with The Guggenheim in New York City and Fallingwater in Pennsylvania among his greatest works.

The Martin House Complex was occupied by businessman Darwin D. Martin, his wife and family; and his sister Delta and her husband George F. Barton. In 1904, Martin was instrumental in selecting Wright as the architect for the Larkin Administration Building, in downtown Buffalo, which was Wright's first major commercial project.

Wright designed the complex as an integrated composition of connecting buildings, consisting of the primary building, the Martin House, a long pergola connecting with a conservatory, a carriage house-stable, and a smaller residence, the Barton House, built for George F. Barton and his wife Delta, Martin's sister. The complex also includes a gardener's cottage, the last building completed.

Over the next twenty years a long-term friendship grew between Wright and Martin. Wright also designed the Blue-Sky Mausoleum for the Martins in 1928, but it was never built. It was finally installed at Buffalo's Forest Lawn Cemetery in 2004 by Wright's one-time apprentice Anthony Puttnam.