This Prairie house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1904, is important in the development of a large private residence which contains open and versatile interior spaces. This concept of a single-family dwelling was not prevalent in American domestic architecture until thirty years later. The house was designated a Buffalo and Erie County Historical Site, November 16, 1971.

Darwin Martin appears to have met Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1903. Martin and his brother, W. E. Martin, were out driving and passed Wright's studio. They were intrigued by its appearance and stopped to call on the owner. That same afternoon Wright received a commission for a house from W. E. Martin, 636 North East Avenue, Oak Park. In the following year, Wright received the commission for the Darwin D. Martin house and for the Larkin Building (demolished in 1950), The Larkin Company was a mail-order business which employed Martin. Other associates in the company also had Wright houses constructed in Buffalo, namely, W. R. Heath, 1905, and Walter V. Davidson, 1908. Mrs. W. R. Heath was the sister of Elbert Hubbard, who at one time was also associated with the Larkin Company. Hubbard is better known for his craft workshop, the Roycroft, which he established in East Aurora, New York--a small community approximately twenty miles east of Buffalo. Wright also designed Martin's summer house, "Graycliff," in the mid 1920s. The ink drawings on sized linen are dated in pencil, August 19, 1929. However, Hitchcock, in In the Nature of Materials, states that the house in Derby, located on the shore of Lake Erie, was begun in 1927, but designed a year or two earlier, and that the garage was begun in 1926. In addition to the above set of plans, the Frank Lloyd Wright Collection of the University Archives also contains a blueprint of the garage beams and columns by Jones Iron Works dated April 8, 1929. According to Hitchcock, neither construction was supervised by Wright.

Frederick C. Bogk was well known in Milwaukee business and political circles during the early decades of the 1900's. Born in Sheboygan Falls, he came to Milwaukee as a child and after completing his education, worked for the Wisconsin Central Railroad, rising to the position of land commissioner. In 1908 he joined the Ricketson Mineral Paint Works and later became president of the company. For a time he also had an interest in Bogk and Pfleger, an insurance and real estate firm. He was elected alderiaan from the fifteenth ward in 1904 and after serving two terms, was elected alderman-at-large, a position he held from 1908 to 1920.

This house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and executed under his supervision. It was built in 1916-1917, in the so-called Japanese years of Wright's career. The building has been designated a Milwaukee landmark.