Decline
Following the loss of the family fortune, due to the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the Great Depression, and subsequently Darwin Martin's death in 1935, the family abandoned the house in 1937. Martin's son, D.R. Martin, had attempted to donate the house to the city or the university to be used as a library but his offer was rejected. By 1937 the complex had already begun to deteriorate, the walls at the front of the house were crumbling, and the conservatory hadn't been used for several years due to a leak in the heating system. Over the next two decades, it remained vacant, was considerably vandalized, and deteriorated further. In 1946 the city took control over the property in a tax foreclosure sale. Purchased in 1951 by the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, with plans to turn the complex into a summer retreat for their priests, it remained empty. Coincidentally 1951 was also the year Graycliff was sold to the Piarists, a Catholic teaching order. The complex was purchased privately in 1955 with the Martin House converted into three apartments, the grounds sub-divided, with the carriage house, conservatory, and pergola demolished, and a pair of apartment buildings constructed in the 1960s. In 1967 the complex was purchased by the University at Buffalo, for use as the University President's residence. The University continued the sub-division with the Barton House sold in 1967 and the Gardener's Cottage soon after. The University attempted restoration of the Martin House, although this consisted mainly of slight modernizations, several pieces of original furniture were located. The complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and then became a National Historic Landmark in 1986.
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