Dawin Martin Docent

I wrote this a little short of a year ago and submitted it to the My View column in the Buffalo News. Rejected it was. I’m now 0-2 with that feature.

Since then the house has continued to reveal itself to me. I doubt that will ever end.

I stopped adding to the list of countries as there grew to be too many to keep track of. On just my once a week tour I’ve had visitors from every continent except Antarctica.

Oh, the visitor comment at the end is a sorta fix. It was written by our dear friend Paula who was visiting from her Toronto home. It was, honest to goddess, unsolicited.

I conduct my tour every Monday at 1:00PM. It’s been called “awesome” and not just by me.

Stop by if you can.

 Back in the chilly, dark days of early April I began docent training at the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Darwin Martin House. 

 

I had for many years conducted my own walking tour of downtown Buffalo. I did it just for my friends or their out of town visitors. I had, after all, worked downtown for forty years. I knew my way around and knew enough about the principal downtown buildings and their histories to keep my guests’ interest. My friends encouraged me to do it on a more formal basis, either on my own or with one of the tour companies that ply downtown streets.  But I was always daunted by the amount of additional research that I would have to do to be really qualified. 

Then I learned that docent training was being offered at the Darwin Martin House. Clearly, learning all about one structure would be a whole lot less taxing that learning as much about a city full of buildings. So I signed up. 

Early on there were times when I was ready to take a walk on it. I didn’t see any difference between the big chunks of required reading and homework, something I’d pledged many years ago to never do again.  Fortunately, most of it proved interesting and propitiously, some of it led me to other related readings.  

The first few classes featured speakers who introduced us to some aspect of the home’s architecture. I found them only marginally interesting.  They were followed by the heavy hitters. Ted Lownie, the architect who supervised the home’s extensive reconstruction, bumbled endearingly through his slide presentation, but nevertheless elucidated the revolutionary architecture Frank Lloyd Wright devised when designing the home. He was followed by Jack Quinan, the home’s curator emeritus. His presentation, enhanced with droll Irish wit, placed Wright’s work in historical context. Their talks engaged me. 

Next came our first assignment: stand in front of a group of classmates and deliver a brief talk about one of the rooms in the house. We’d been told to find our own voice, to prepare a presentation in our own words. My little talk included lotsa of the juicy stuff that marks Frank Lloyd Wright’s lifetime. But the teaching docent cut me short.  

“We don’t go into that,” He said.  

I left that night went home and sulked.  If they didn’t want my perspective, then the heck with them. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going back.   

Then, on the spur of the moment, I attended a talk on the history of the Martin House Restoration Corporation presented by Executive Director Mary Roberts. She spoke of the many people who had contributed. Some of the names she cited, Zemsky, Wilmers, Lipsey, were familiar; many were not. I was particularly struck by a photo of the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, whom I greatly admired, hugging one of the home’s piers.  Hers was the story of a two decade long restoration effort which had come a long way and accomplished so much. As I listened I began to realize that I was coming very late to a monumentally successful project.  It was time to give my ego a rest and learn from all of those whose achievements clearly showed they knew what they were doing. I rededicated myself and became the first in my class to complete training. In late June I started conducting a regular weekly tour. 

Those that believed that Frank Lloyd Wright’s early masterpiece would draw visitors from all over the world have been proven correct. In just the few months since my docent graduation, my tours have included visitors from China, Japan, Korea and Thailand, from Switzerland, France, England, Ireland and Germany, from Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand and South Africa. And, of course, from all over this country and Canada.  

Invariably they leave impressed.  They are struck by the audacity of Frank Lloyd Wright’s design and stirred by the home’s beautiful interior. And because the docents have been so well prepared, visitors leave with new insights into principals of architecture and social history.  One recent visitor wrote, “I’m still thinking about and talking about the house and all that I learned on the tour. Bravo! What informed volunteers you have!”