DEAR ABBY TOUTS DOCENTS

TODAY, Tuesday, 7/23/2013 THERE WAS AN ARTICLE IN DEAR ABBY ABOUT DOCENTS AND RULES FOR VISITING HISTORIC PLACES FOR TOURS.  THE RULES SOUND MUCH LIKE THE ONES FOR GRAYCLIFF, BUT DEAR ABBY HANDS OFF A NICE COMPLIMENT TO DOCENTS IN GENERAL.  SO TO THOSE OF YOU WISHING A NICE PAT ON THE BACK, CHECK IT OUT.   SINCE IT IS NOW NO LONGER JULY 23RD, YOU NEED TO KEEP CLICKING ON THE "PREVIOUS DAY" HEADING ON THE TOP OF THE COLUMN ON THE BELOW LINK  UNTIL JULY 23 COMES UP AND THE ARTICLE WILL BE THE SECOND LETTER DOWN.

DEAR ABBY/

Passing of a Friend and Benefactor

On July 14 a friend and neighbor of Graycliff passed away, Rosemary Esty.  She was the wife of the late Harold M. Esty who was the grandson of John D. Larkin, the founder of the Larkin Company.  Mrs. Esty was the person who donated the Cutler rolltop desk to Graycliff which belonged to her husband's grandfather.  The desk currently is in the foyer at Graycliff.  Our sympathies and best wishes are extended to her family.  Services are to be private, but memorial donations are accepted in her name at Hospice Buffalo,Inc., PO Box 590, Buffalo, NY 14240

Isabelle R.Martin Society Reception

                                                   

On August 15 there will be a reception held at the Walter V. Davidson House, a privately owned Frank Lloyd Wright designed home in Buffalo in behalf of the Isabelle R. Martin Society. It will be hosted by Russell Maxwell, former Graycliff Board member, and owner and steward of the Davidson House.

You are invited to attend.  The purpose of the reception is to encourage you to join the Society by providing a bequest to the Graycliff Conservancy in your will.  As a Graycliff volunteer you already understand the need to preserve Graycliff for the future and the ongoing cost to accomplish it.  This provides another option for helping to do so.

If you would like to attend to know more, please call 716-947-9217 or email Graycliff to RSVP by August 9.  (Of course, a side benefit is a tour of the Davidson House, a very unusual opportunity.)

Tiny Visitor

This frog showed up at Graycliff recently to help celebrate the successful landscape renovation.  The word is that Ryan managed to talk it into signing up for a tour, Graycliff membership, and $75. worth of purchases from the gift shop!   Now, if we can just work on that hawk and the deer!

Graycliff Makes the Front Page of the Buffalo News!

A photograph of Graycliff's new landscape restoration appeared on the front page--above the fold-- of the Buffalo News, with the story continuing on the front page, with another photo, of the City and Region section.  It is a good article on the completion of the landscape renovation project. 

As a result, Graycliff Tours are selling out, with great demand for additional tours.  These are being added, and a big heart felt thank you to Graycliff Docents who are stepping up to lead tours today, this weekend, and next week.  

Very exciting!

 If you don't get the paper, there is a link below to check it out. 

 http://www.buffalonews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130709/CITYANDREGION/130709230

More Boynton House

Phyllis Spears was good enough to inform me that for those of you who want to watch the Boynton House video on the big screen that WNED, Channel 17 is hosting the video this month on 7/19 at 10 pm and again on 7/24 at 12:30 am.  Feast or famine.  It is a video worth the watching if you have never seen it.

Losing a Graycliff Friend

It is with sadness that I report the passing of a longtime volunteer of Graycliff,  Carlton Meyers passed at age 75.  He  and his wife Alicia were both volunteers with Graycliff and I am sure many of you knew them.  His wake will be held today at Amigone Funeral Home on Cleveland Drive near Harlem 2-8 PM.  The funeral will be held Wednesday at 9:30 am at St. Joseph's University in Buffalo.  Memorials may be made in Carl's name to the Parkinson's Association.  Our heartfelt sympathies are extended to Alicia and her family for the loss we all share. For further information refer to the obituary posted in the Buffalo News.

LAST KNOWN PHOTO OF FLW

I know you have all seen this photo before; I have even used it previously in the blog for an  earlier article.  However, it is significant in that it is the last photo portrait taken of Wright prior to his passing in 1959.  It was taken by Pedro Guerrero who Wright hired in 1939 to be the official photographer at Taliesen West.  He worked for Wright up until he was drafted during World War II. When he returned from service in 1945 he continued to work for Wright as an on call photographer, travelling the country photographing new Wright projects.  Guerrero worked for other notable artists to include Alexander Calder, but his daughter noted that when Wright called, her father would drop everything to do whatever work Wright had in mind.  Guerrero became a talent in his own right and his work is well regarded.  He credits Wright with teaching him the finer points of his art.  He lived at both Taliesen's  for several seasons with Wright as his artistic mentor.  Until very recently he resided and practiced his craft at his home in Florence AZ.  He recently passed away on September 13, 2012 at the age of 95.  Our Director, Reine, informed me that Guerrero visited Grayclff in 2011 and forwarded the following photo of that visit..

Pedro Guerrero at Graycliff

In the Spring of 1959 Wright invited him to Taliesen West to photograph recent changes he had made to the site. This photo was taken at that time.  Of that visit Guerrero has said, "At nearly 91 years of age, Mr. Wright had many commissions, was happy, and seemingly as full of life as ever.  During that visit I took this photo of him.  It turned out to be his last portrait.  He died three weeks later."

Of personal interest to at least me, I recognize the room the photo was taken in.  When I visited Taliesen West this past Winter I sat in that room and rested my arm on that same table.  I wish I had known the connection at the time.  Another tidbit of information to add to our ever increasing warehouse of Wright knowledge and understanding.

(Information FLW Quarterly Winter 2012 Vol. 1)

Boynton House, Rochester

I attended the Kim Bixler talk at the Darwin Martin House today ,7/8/13.  She was interesting; her multi media show was interesting, and yes I got suckered in and bought her book,  Growing Up In a Frank Lloyd Wright House.  If anyone wants to borrow it, they are welcome to as soon as I finish reading it.  The Boynton House was built in 1908 and is the only FLW designed house in the Rochester, NY area.  It has also been in the hands of private owners its entire history.  Kim and her family lived in it for about 17 years, moving out in the mid 90's. The current owners undertook a restoration/rehabilitation of the house and the local public broadcasting station did a documentary on the project in 2012.  The video ran on local WXXI station that produced it and for awhile was available to be purchased through the station.  However, Ms. Bixler commented that it is not publicly available and that  she wished she could have a copy and that it be made available for others to view.

When I got home today, I did a little sleuthing and found a complete copy of the video and am providing a link to it here for your viewing pleasure.  It is about an hour long but very interesting and worth the investment of time to view.

WXXI Boytnon House Restoration

RENOVATION UPDATE

The current outside renovation is pretty near complete.  I visited the estate this past weekend to see what has been going on and took my trusty digital camera so that I could show those of you, who like myself might not have been to the property for awhile, what the situation looks like now.

The driveway is complete.  All lawn areas restored and either reseeded or sodded.  Most landscaping is done.  The pond was half full of water and needed more plantings and a few more rocks to finish it out.  That should all be done by the end of the week.  And of course, any sign of the bridge that connected to the beach tower is gone.  We need to stay off the new grass for awhile yet, but otherwise we are pretty much set to go.  I hope the following photos are useful.

Front of the house showing pond

                                          
                                                               From the front stoop

                                          The Foster House from the front stoop of house

                                            The pond from second floor window in hallway.

                                               Foster House from window in upstairs hallway.

                                                Pond and circle drive from front terrace.

                                     Stairway minus bridge looking towards Buffalo skyline.

FLW Suggested Self Tour for Midwest

Diane Schrenk forwarded  this clipping from the Chicago Tribune suggesting a summer outing of FLW sites in the Midwest.  It shows the constantly growing significance of FLW and his architectural concepts to the American public.  Although I don't know how many of us are going to drive to the Midwest to tour the locations, some sound very interesting, especially the display of his Usonian designs.  Please check out the article.

I also wanted to note that this blog has just recently surpassed the 5000 hit mark and I want to thank all volunteers and followers who have been reading this blog.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/special/adsections/aranet/chi-ara-8078660101-20130626%2c0%2c7468524.story

New Magazine in Gift Shop

                                                    
The above new magazine is totally focused on Wright landscaping and is currently available in the gift shop for $7.   It is titled Save Wright.  It includes an article by our own FLW guru, Pat Mahoney titled, "Graycliff: Landscape for the Lakefront Estate."

It includes other articles such as "Landscape at Talisen: Carrying on the Legacy" by Keiran Murphy, who not so coincidently will be lecturing at Graycliff in the Fall

"Recapturing the Landscape of the Dawin D. Martin House" by Jack Quinan

Other articles involve landscaping of the Weltzheimer-Johson House, the Coonley House, and the Westscott House.

You may want to stop and purchase a copy while they are still available.

GRAYCLIFF IN CBS BOSTON

Graycliff got a mention on the website for CBS Boston this week.  If you want to check and see the article, click on the link below.  Good press is always great, especially when it is free!


hCBS Boston

Kim Bixler , Another Opportunity

                                                                   

If you have not yet caught Kim Bixler's multimedia presentation about growing up in a Frank Lloyd Wright House  and cannot make the already posted presentation on Monday evening.  July 8 at the Guaranty Building, you might be interested in this one.  It is also scheduled on Monday July 8, but from 1-2 pm at the Darwin Martin Complex and it is free. 

Although not the original owner family, Kim grew up in the 1908 Boynton House in nearby Rochester and she is full of stories which is why she has written the above book on the subject.  Her talk will be presented in the basement of the house, but I would suspect you need to check in at the Pavilion to attend.  It may be easier to get to than the evening presentation and a more convenient time for many people.  So you have two choices.  I think I might try for the afternoon one myself if I am up to it (still recovering from what should have been a minor surgery, but they tell me the lobotomy was a success,)  The link below connects to her website and has some interesting photos of the house.



Kim Bixler Photos.