A Summer Road Trip

A couple of years ago, some of my sorority sisters from college got together for a little reunion in Indianapolis. We had so much fun that we went to New York City last fall (see may post about that), and this year rented the same huge house to get together again. We had a wonderful time pretending we were young again, playing Euchre, drinking wine, visiting an immersive Salvador Dali exhibit at the Newfield Museum and having a feast with other sisters who live in the area but didn’t stay with us.

On the way home I took a detour to visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater, a place I’ve wanted to visit for many years. It’s tucked into the Laurel Highlands, a lovely spot in the Allegheny Mountains.

Designed as a weekend retreat for the wealthy Kaufman family, who owned the department store bearing their name, it was built in 1935 and is now a World Heritage Site. When the Kaufmans first purchased the land, they made it into a summer camp that could be enjoyed by department store employees. But with the Depression putting a cramp on leisure time, the family decided to build their dream retreat in the woods where they loved to hike. The house is built over Bear Run, and a waterfall adds a unique design element to the home.

Wright’s entryways are often referred to as compress and release, and Fallingwater’s is classic.

Inside, most of the furniture is built-in, consistent with Wright’s custom.

Fallingwater’s kitchen (above) was as forgettable as all the Wright kitchens I’ve ever seen. Below, Edgar Kaufman and his hiking stick.

As it turns out, Fallingwater is an apt name, as water leaks into the house through the reinforced concrete beams.

A short distance down the road is Kentuck Knob, another home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and built in 1956 for the Hagen family, also of Pittsburgh, who made their money in ice cream. This single-story structure sprawls across the top (knob) of a hill overlooking a panoramic view of the Highlands.

Built of limestone slabs like Fallingwater, it is trimmed in Tidewater red cypress from North Carolina.

Open skylights above the wraparound porch create hexagonal patterns on a sunny day, and allow for cute piles of snow in winter. No photos were allowed inside, but I was impressed with the 28-foot long built-in sofa. The current owners spend 4-6 weeks there in the summer, which probably accounts for the no-photos rule.

By the 1950s, Wright was signing his work…

A winding woodland trail marked by large sculptures leads from the house back to the visitor center.

At the edge of the knob, the trees give way to a panoramic vista of the rolling hills of the Highlands.

The current owner is British, which informs some of the interesting artifacts around the site.

All in all, well worth an extra two days added to my journey.