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The Darwin House is one of the Praire houses that Frank Lloyd Wright designed as a residential type. These houses are marked externally by extended horizontal lines and overhanging roofs, and internally by spatial continuity among major rooms, and the integration of furniture and ornament, especially art glass windows.
Darwin D. Martin and his brother, William E. Martin, were co-owners of the E-Z Stove Polish Company, based in Chicago. In 1902, William commissioned Wright to build him a home in Oak Park. The resultant William E. Martin House was constructed in 1903. Upon viewing his brother's home, Darwin Martin persuaded Wright to build a complex on his property in Buffalo.
Wright designed the complex as an integrated composition of connecting buildings. The complex consisted 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 included a gardener's cottage, the last building completed.
After the Martin family abandoned the house in 1937, the complex began to deteriorate, then it was partly demolished. A restoration project, started in 2006, was completed in 2017. It was the first time that a demolished Wright structure was rebuilt in the United States.
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