Gratwick House

776 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, New York

Completed in 1888, for William Henry Gratwick (1839-1899) and his wife, Martha Penelope Weare (1839-1916). According to the respected architectural historian, Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer, this was the last house designed by H.H. Richardson in the style that he made synonymous, 'Richardsonian Romanesque'. One month before Richardson's premature death in April, 1886, he wrote to his assistant: "Mr Gratwick's plan is settled, unless they pull it all to pieces in Buffalo, where I forwarded revised studies last night". After his death, his assistants created the firm of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge that brought the house into fruition at a total cost of $104,342....

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This house is best associated with...

William Henry Gratwick

William H. Gratwick, Lumber Merchant, of Buffalo, New York

1839-1899

Martha (Weare) Gratwick

Mrs Martha Penelope (Weare) Gratwick

1839-1916

In 1919, three years after the death of Mrs Gratwick, her heirs sold the brownstone house to Stephen Clement and Frank H. Goodyear Jr. who lived either side of the Gratwicks. They promptly demolished the house and divided the land between them, significantly enlarging their gardens. Before it was demolished almost all of its building materials, features and fittings (notably mahogany doors, stained glass windows, cedar cabinets, mahogany panelling, imported silk upholstery, quartered oak and maple flooring, Spanish roof tiles etc.) were sold off and some of the bricks can still be seen today after they were re-used to build the Ascension Episcopal Church's Parish House at 16 Linwood Avenue.