Control board. Tax hike. Brain drain. It can be hard sometimes not to focus on the negative things happening in Western New York.

With so much going awry in the dawn of the 21st century, it’s easy to forget how vital a cog in the nation Buffalo was 100 years ago. A locally produced special airing next week on public television helps bring some of that importance back into the light.

“Frank Lloyd Wright’s Buffalo” explores the impact the renowned architect and the Nickle City had on each other. With the steel industry being centered in Buffalo and a wealth of electricity available thanks to Niagara Falls, the “City of Light” was one of the nation’s biggest financial hubs.

One of the many entrepreneurs with local roots was Darwin Martin, who rose to prominence with the Larkin Soap Company. Martin met Wright when searching for an architect for the company’s new building, and a number of local masterpieces were born.

The most famous of these is the Darwin Martin House, a series of structures built in Buffalo that Martin commissioned. With an unlimited budget and few guidelines, Wright was able to make a structure truly according to his vision.

The two remained friends for decades, with Martin loaning Wright money multiple times for past debts and future projects. After working on numerous projects worldwide, Wright returned to Western New York to build his friend a summer home in Derby, the Graycliff Estate.

Using old photos, stock photage and correspondence between the subjects, the show paints a nice picture, offering a thorough portrait of the architect’s influence on Buffalo. Without the start he got in the Niagara Frontier, Wight might not have moved on to create masterpieces such as New York City’s Guggenheim Museum and Fallingwater in Pennsylvania.

The special focuses on Wright’s financial woes, but also touches upon Martin’s struggles after the 1929 stock market crash. Wiped out within a few years, Martin died penniless in 1935. His family lived in the Martin House until she could no longer afford it, them literally walking out on it after running out of money. After sitting abandoned for decades, new owners demolished much of the property in the 1960s. It countinued to decline until it was made into a tourist attraction some years later; the complex is currently being rebuilt as Wright had designed it for historical purposes.

The show does an excellent job highlighting this glamourous period in the city’s history, an era many people might not know about. Anyone with local roots or an interest in history will be well-served to tune in and look back to a time when Buffalo was more than just a punchline.

© 2006, Niagara Gazette

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