The forecast was for rain all day today (remnants of Florence) so we visited the two Frank Lloyd Wright houses, and a somber memorial.
The most famous house by Wright is Falling Water but we stopped at Kentuck Knob first since it was right next to the campground. I.N. Hagen and his wife were friends of the Kaufmanns and loved their house, Falling Water, so they asked the Kaufmanns to introduce them to Wright so they could ask him to design a home for them. Wright agreed, and without ever seeing the land in person, designed a lovely home that has the signature style of incorporating the outdoors to be a part of the whole structure. This 1957 house was built for $96,000, has 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 bath, a 3-car carport, and at the insistence of Mrs. Hagen a small 2-room basement for utilities and storage. The open concept living room and dining room look out over the deck in the back and has a monstrously large fireplace. The floors are flagstones like the front porch; the back wall is all glass with a feeling of being outdoors; the wood is Red cypress from S. Carolina and is used because it is rot resistant; the roof is all copper; and the whole house is based on 60° and 120° angles around the hexagon shaped kitchen. A unique feature we did not like is that Wright likes the concept of ‘compression and release’. The hallways were 19” wide and 6’6” ceilings that would ‘compress' you until you entered a room that had tall ceilings and felt very open to ‘release’ you. We were not allowed to take pictures inside the house.
Falling Water was designed in 1935 and completed in 1939. It was built as a retreat for the Edgar J. Kaufmann family, owner of Kaufmann Department Stores in Pittsburgh. It exemplifies Wright’s concept of organic architecture or the harmonious union of art and nature. This house has three levels and is cantilevered over the waterfalls so that the falls are incorporated into the house. You can open a glass hatch on the main floor and walk down steps to the top of the waterfall or walk out on the deck to look down into the Bear Run River. In this house Wright incorporated straight lines with a few arcs or curves; cantilevered each floor as well as some of the furniture; and used a cascading effect with roof lines and exterior walls to mimic cascading water. He also built a guest house and servant’s quarters up hill from the main house. When Edgar and his wife died, their only son gave the house to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in 1963 to run and maintain as a living museum including all the original furniture and artwork.. Tours started in 1964. No photography was allowed inside the house.
An hour and a half from Falling Water is the Flight 93 National Memorial dedicated to the men and women who, on 9/11/01, forced the Delta airline to crash in a field instead of in Washington DC. They have marked the crash site with a boulder and have left the remains buried there. The visitor center looks like a plane, the flight path before the crash is lined with white marble inscribed with the names of the deceased. The Tower of Voices is not quite complete so we heard no sound but it is impressive to see. This is a memorial we should all pass through so we never forget these brave souls.
On our way back to camp we passed three different covered bridges but only stopped at one to get a picture. They were all built in the early to mid-1800’s.
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