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| Kentuck Knob |
Frank Lloyd
Wright is a very famous architect, and two of the homes he designed are located
not too far from each other in Western Pennsylvania, near where Maryland, West
Virginia and Pennsylvania intersect. Fallingwater is the most famous of these
homes. Our first visit was to the other
house, Kentuck Knob.
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| Back side of the house |
Kentuck Knob
is a mountain home built in the early 1950’s for the Hagan family. The Hagans were friends with the Kaufmann’s and
had admired their home, Fallingwater.
They commissioned Wright to design a home for them as well. It was late
in Wright’s career and he had 12 other projects going at the time. He designed the house using topographical
maps, and aerial and ground photos of the property, only visiting the site once,
at the time that it was under construction.
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| Porch roof overhang with hexagonal skylights |
During the
tour, the guide highlights the areas where Wright's original designs were adjusted
to meet the requests of the owners. That
was an interesting insight. The Hagans
lived in the house for 28 years. It was
then bought by the current owners who have opened it to the public as a museum. We were only allowed to take photographs of
the exterior of the house and the grounds.
The grounds have sculptures from the current owners’ collection and the
interior has some more of their art pieces, as well as some Wright designed furniture
from other locations.
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| Patio off of the dining room and along the bedrooms |
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| Designs carved into the wood over some of the windows |
Wright
designed Kentuck Knob using hexagons.
Except for two corners, all of the corners are 60 or 120 degrees. It makes for some very interesting shaped
rooms. The two 90 degree corners are in
the bathrooms, and were allowed to accommodate plumbing. The walls inside and out are made of local
sandstone, with upper panels of the walls and soffits under the eaves made of
red tidewater cypress wood. The cypress is
often carved in geometric shapes based on the hexagonal shapes in the house
itself. The floors throughout are field
stone.
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| Front entry and drive. Carports on the left. |
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| Looking at the outside of the living room. |
The house is
quite lovely inside with a large friendly living room, a long narrow, dining
room, a central hexagonal shaped kitchen, 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. There are original furniture pieces that were
designed for the house. It would be hard
to imagine living in a house like this, it feels almost like a work of art
instead of a comfortable place to live.
After all, where would you leave your knitting bag and other detritus of
life lying around?
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| Inviting porches overlook forested grounds. |
The
intention was for the house to look like it is part of the hillside, and it
does come out of the side of the hill near the top of the knob. Porches surround a good bit of the house, and
glass doors draw you outside into nature.
There are interesting openings in the roofs over the porches that let in
light and air.
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| Interesting angles in walls and roofline |
Kentuck Knob
is a very short walk away from a gorgeous view of the Youghiogheny River Gorge
with cultivated fields and forest covered mountains. It is a lovely location and home and well
worth the visit. Plan to reserve a spot
on a tour online prior to your trip, walk-ins are limited by availability. There are tours every
half hour and each tour only allows 14 people.
Tours cost $25 per person. The tour
starts at the Visitors Center/Gift Shop/Café.
You are driven up to the house in a shuttle bus and can elect to walk back
to your car through the grounds or take the shuttle back down after the tour.
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| And what a view! |
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