6472 Old Lake Shore Rd

Graycliff, perched dramatically on the limestone bluffs above Lake Erie in Derby, New York, is the summer estate Frank Lloyd Wright designed for Darwin D. Martin and his wife Isabelle between 1926 and 1931. The same client for whom Wright had designed the magnificent Martin House complex in Buffalo two decades earlier, Darwin Martin commissioned Graycliff as a summer retreat, and Wright responded with a design that is among his most joyful and site-responsive works.

The name "Graycliff" derives from the gray limestone bluffs that form the dramatic western edge of the property, where the land drops sharply to Lake Erie some forty feet below. Wright seized on this topography as the organizing principle of the design: the main house and guest house are sited near the cliff's edge, with broad terraces cantilevering toward the lake and horizontal bands of windows that frame the sweeping views of Lake Erie and the Canadian shore beyond.

The main residence, called the Martin House, is a two-story Prairie Style composition with the characteristic Wright vocabulary of low-pitched roofs, wide overhanging eaves, and strong horizontal emphasis. Bands of casement windows and continuous horizontal bands of Roman brick give the house a streamlined quality that anticipates Wright's later Usonian designs. The guest cottage, called the Garage and Servants' Quarters, completes the ensemble and features some of Wright's most inventive ornamental brickwork.

After years of private ownership and institutional use, Graycliff was transferred to the non-profit Graycliff Conservancy in 1997. An extensive restoration program has been underway since, carefully documenting and restoring the buildings to their 1931 appearance based on Wright's original drawings and historic photographs. The estate is open for tours and has become an essential destination for anyone interested in Frank Lloyd Wright's work.