Walter V. Davidson House - Table of Contents
First floor - Walter V. Davidson House
57 Tillinghast Place, Buffalo, N.Y.
TEXT Beneath Illustrations
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Living room |
Living room |
Living room |
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Architect's drawing: cross section and longitudinal section |
1913 photo |
1940s photo |
Huge bay window at the east end of the room and clerestory windows along the north and south walls. |
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Two-story cathedral-like living room illuminated by a huge bay window at the east end of the room and by the clerestory windows along the north and south walls |
1913 photo |
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Living room with sun room in background |
Sun room in background |
Sun room adjoining living room |
Sun room - original wall sconce |
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1940s photo |
Roman brick fireplace |
Open floor plan and dining room |
Wooden vertical grill masking stairs to second floor |
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1940s photo |
Leaded glass clerestory windows |
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Dining room |
Dining room |
Dining room |
Dining room |
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Original built-in sideboard |
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Original built-in sideboard, including leaded glass |
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Leaded glass lattice windows |
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Built-in ice box off kitchen |
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Frank Lloyd Wright designed this house for a Larkin Company executive, Walter Davidson, who joined the company in 1906 and left both the company and the house in 1913 in order to establish the Davidson Shoe Company.The house has a number of prairie house features in common with the Darwin D. Martin House, but its stuccoed wood construction and colorless glass are indicative of a relatively modest budget With this in mind, Wright seems to have traded material richness for the non-material possibilities of space and light.
The unobtrusive exterior of the house gives little indication of a two-story cathedral-like living room illuminated by a huge bay window at the east end of the room and by the clerestory windows along the north and south walls.
West of the living room, the house divides into two stories, which are in turn divided into multiple floor levels. Spatial grandeur is cleverly played off against intimacy, while even the smallest of spaces is opened up through Wright's use of banded window sequences.Additional rooms were added to the garage in the 1930's in a manner that closely follows the style of the original house except for the arched passageway that leads through to the back yard.
- Buffalo Architecture: A Guide, by Francis R. Kowsky, et. al. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1981
