A WRIGHT MASTERPIECE: THROUGH A CHILD'S EYES (10/05)
A visit to grandmother and grandfather's house was "a wonderful adventure," filled with music, learning and play for Darwin Martin's granddaughter, Margaret Foster. During a recent visit to Buffalo, Foster reminisced about her early-childhood visits to the Frank Lloyd Wright masterpiece at 125 Jewett Parkway.
Now age 75 and living in Texas, the daughter of Dorothy Martin Foster and James Foster recalls:
- Playing hide-and-seek with her brother, Darwin (Jerry), who now lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan; The heavy curtains dividing the spaces in the Unit Room proved to be good hiding spaces.
- Picking out the small brown tiles from the floor of the verandah off the living room and tossing them into the garden or down the basement stairwell;
- Her grandmother's (Isabelle's) and mother's love of gardening, and flowers decorating "every available spot," often in yellow and rust, in keeping with the color scheme of the house;
- Listening to "Aunt Polly" (her grandmother's companion, Cora Herrick) read The Jungle Book and Wind in the Willows;
- Sunday dinners as "knowledge times," when family members discussed opinions and viewpoints;
- Tales of her grandfather's habit of enthusiastically sharing an item of interest with the family during meal-time after consulting a volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica, conveniently located in a nearby Wright-designed bookcase;
- Family "concerts" around the living room piano, featuring singing and accompaniment by her mother, an accomplished pianist.
Foster was invited to visit the region by WNED-TV, who recorded her reminiscences of Graycliff, the Martin's summer home on Lake Erie in Derby, for an upcoming segment of the three-part series, Saving a Landmark The Darwin Martin House. -
Personal memories and first-hand accounts, combined with other research sources, help document the stories that will allow visitors to better understand the life that took place in these historic homes.
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