An early 20th-century gem After nearly 20 years and $2 million, Frank Lloyd Wright?s Barton House is once again ready for public appreciation. The house, built in 1903 in Buffalo, N.Y., is a shining example of Wright?s expertise in domestic architecture?but at the time, it was a gamble.
By the turn of the 20th century, Wright had hit his stride. The young architect, who was making a name for himself designing low-slung, open-plan houses often swathed in brick, broke out of his Midwestern bubble and earned his first East Coast commission.
It was a house in Buffalo for Delta and George Barton, the sister and brother-in-law of Darwin D. Martin, a wealthy businessman in town who was interested in using Wright to design a building for company he worked for. On the strength of the Barton House, Martin ended up commissioning Wright to design a multi-building estate called the Martin House Complex, which also includes the larger Martin House, a carriage house, a garden house, a conservatory, and a pergola.
Photo by Biff Henrich

The Barton House, the smaller of the two main structures, was in the style of his earlier ?Prairie-style? homes, named for their resemblance to the broad, flat land they were often built on in Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. Unlike many of its Midwestern counterparts, though, the Barton House is marked by some extravagant details that have been painstakingly updated during the pricey restoration.
The efforts brought both the inter...