George Barton House

Buffalo, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright between 1903 and 1904, the George Barton House stands at 118 Summit Avenue in Buffalo, New York, as a seminal example of Prairie School architecture. Built for George and Delta Barton—the brother-in-law and sister of businessman Darwin D. Martin—the house features Wright's characteristic two-story cruciform layout with intersecting wings, a Roman brick facade, and broad overhanging roofs. The 4,400-square-foot interior contains eight rooms across its distinctive form. Originally commissioned as a test project by Martin, the house's success led to Wright's commissions for Martin's own residence and the Larkin Administration Building, marking Wright's first major work on the East Coast. Though the project exceeded its initial $4,000 budget to reach $12,000, the Barton House has survived remarkably intact, never abandoned or substantially altered. Acquired by the University at Buffalo in the 1960s, then by the Martin House Restoration Corporation in 1994, it was fully renovated in 2018 and remains open to the public as part of the Martin estate complex on the National Register of Historic Places.