James White - Table of Contents
History - James White House
An excerpt from
Oakland Place: Gracious Living in Buffalo
By Martin WachadloPublished by Buffalo Heritage Unlimited
This address is most notable for what was not built here: Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin D. Martin House. As the executive of the Larkin Soap Company, Darwin Martin had the financial wherewithal to choose from Buffalo's most exclusive neighborhoods. Oakland Place was exactly the sort of street on which Martin and his wife, Isabelle, wished to live. They purchased this lot for their new home as 1901 was drawing to a close. However, their architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, declared that the lot was too small for the sort of home he envisioned. By late 1902, he had convinced them that a large corner site on Jewett Parkway in their current neighborhood, Buffalo's Parkside community, was the most appropriate location for their new home.
The Martins did not sell their Oakland Place property even after their new home was completed; in late 1908, Darwin Martin asked Frank Lloyd Wright to prepare plans for an apartment house on the property. Martin's vision was never realized and he sold the lot to James A. White early the following year.
White, president of the Buffalo Maple Flooring Company, immediately retained the prominent architectural firm of Colson & Hudson to design a traditional home. Oak floors were nearly universal at that time and one cannot help but wonder whether he specified his own product for the floors in his new home. His large Colonial Revival house, constructed in 1909, is typical of many Buffalo homes in that its entry façade faces the side rather than the street. This arrangement allowed the living room to span the entire width of the house.
James A. White and his wife, Mary J. Beach, lived at 110 Oakland Place for less than a decade. Edward C. Strong and his wife, Edith Childs, moved in around 1919. Strong was vice president and general manager of the Atlas Steel Casting Company. It appears that Oakland Place was popular with the firm's officers: Clinton R. Wycoff, treasurer and later president, lived at 48, and his son, also an officer at Atlas, at 27. Despite the street's popularity with his colleagues, the Strongs had sold their home by 1928.
Elbert S. Bennett and his wife, Lillian Baker, were the new owners of 110 Oakland Place. A native of Pennsylvania, Bennett had worked for the F. W. Woolworth Company since 1898; he moved to Buffalo in 1912 as assistant superintendent when the local S. H. Knox 5-and-10-cent stores were merged into F. W. Woolworth & Company. (The S. H. Knox chain was the initial source of wealth for the Knox family, including Seymour of 57.) After Elbert retired in 1927, the Bennetts traveled extensively.
1928 Remodeling
In 1928, they [Bennetts] commissioned architect Frederick C. Backus to transform their newly purchased home on Oakland Place. This transformation left very little of the original interior; it was akin to a new home for Elbert and Lillian.
The outside changed, as well. On the street façade, the original windows were replaced by French doors leading to a new terrace. French doors also replaced the windows on the second story; in this case, the doors lead to iron balconies. The façade also featured a new, rather unusual touch: a new chimney rising through its center. The low hip roof pierced by numerous pedimented dormers is original. The original rough-textured brick facing is intact but it was painted by a previous owner. The garage is dark red, as it was originally.
The elegant and substantial entry bay also dates from the remodeling. Inside the at-grade front door, a short staircase leads to a glass door and on into the living room. The living room, which extends across the front of the house, has a mantel with Corinthian columns and a swag motif. The swag motif is repeated in the leaded glass doors of the built-in bookcases. The adjacent dining room has a bay window and built-in china cabinets; it leads to a charming breakfast room, where arched windows of leaded glass overlook the back yard.
The second floor is accessed via a Rococo wrought iron staircase which is located to the right of the entry. As the staircase winds its way to the second floor, the landing features casement windows with colored glass and silhouettes of Apollo and Daphne. Beyond the staircase, there is a little gem of a library, with paneled walls and a beamed ceiling with the original painted decoration. It is likely that this was Elbert's room: there is a humidor amid the built-in file drawers and the room even had its own built-in exhaust fan. Elbert died in their home in 1943, at the age of 75, and Lillian continued living there into the 1960s.
Present owners: Ronald Caruso and Lucy Tretiak Caruso