HOUSES 101 | D.D. Martin House

Wow!  I'm so excited I get to show off the D.D. Martin House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.  If you saw my "Book Favorites #2" post, I showed a picture of the house.  Today, however, I'm going to go in-depth with the D.D. Martin House.  The house is one of the best examples of the Prairie style, and it changed the style forever.  Here is my HOUSES 101 exclusive post!

The Darwin D. Martin House or Darwin Martin House State Historical Site is a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright between 1903 and 1905.  Wright considered the house to be one of the most important projects in the Prairie style era.  Darwin D. Martin lived in the home with his wife Isabelle. 

(DD Martin House completed in 1905)

Frank Lloyd Wright's career contains a lot of prairie style projects, which includes some of his most magnificent creations.  He said on this house,

"The main motives and indications were: First - To reduce the number of necessary parts of the house and the separate rooms to a minimum, and make all come together as an enclosed space--so divided that light, air and vista permeated the whole with a sense of unity."

All of his residential creations contained a real feel of what "home" actually is.  Everyone that stepped into a Wright house was flabbergasted! 

The house isn't just a regular house.  It is huge!  It is also known as the Darwin D. Martin Complex because it is so big.  There is even a gardener's cottage somewhere else in the house.  The actual house is located on the south end of the complex.  In 1935, Darwin D. Martin died.  He was in a deep depression because he had lost all his fortune from the Great Depression.  (That sounded weird.)  Anyway, the family abandoned the house in 1937.  The Martin House Restoration Corporation was formed in 1992 to restore the house, and the house is now restored because of it.