Graycliff
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Graycliff
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| Nearest city | Derby, New York |
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| Coordinates | 42°42′48.18″N 78°58′22.45″W / 42.7133833°N 78.9729028°WCoordinates: 42°42′48.18″N 78°58′22.45″W / 42.7133833°N 78.9729028°W |
| Built | 1926 |
| Architect | Frank Lloyd Wright |
| Architectural style | Prairie School |
| NRHP Reference # | 98001222 |
| Added to NRHP | October 1, 1998 |
The Graycliff estate was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) and was built between 1926 and 1931. It is located about 20 minutes south of downtown Buffalo, New York, at 6472 Old Lake Shore Road in Derby, New York. Sometimes called "The Jewel on the Lake", Graycliff is sited on a bluff overlooking Lake Erie with sweeping views of downtown Buffalo and the Ontario shore.
Graycliff is one of the most ambitious and extensive summer estates Wright ever designed.
The Graycliff estate was the summer home of Isabelle R. 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 support to Wright as his career unfolded.
In the early years of their long relationship, Darwin Martin was actively involved with the selection of Frank Lloyd Wright as the architect for the Larkin Administration Building, 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.
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 (1914) and Fallingwater (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.
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