Fallingwater - Frank Lloyd Wright

Welcome back to what will be the last three days of my 2022 Winter Adventure. I'll be spending it here in the Hersheypark Camping Resort, in Hummelstown, PA. My plan was to overnight in the Madison/Pittsburgh KOA Saturday night and take off Sunday with a stop at "Fallingwater" to view the 1935 vacation home Frank Lloyd Wright designed for the Edgar J. Kaufmann family, owners of Pittsburgh's largest department store. Be sure to click those links for good stuff.

Snow flurries greeted me in the morning and as I began the 45-minute, 36 mile journey, the rise in elevation along with the wind driven fine snow created near zero visibility for most of the journey. The uphill roads were beginning to turn white due the blowing snow off the surrounding farmlands. It was by far the most white-knuckled drive I've taken in snowy conditions thus far. The roads for the most part were clear but I was again in the middle or nowhere so the "what if's" and the "supposing's" were running circles in my head. 

My tour was set for 1:00 p.m. but, again, with the drive I had after this visit to Hersheypark, I was successful in getting on an earlier tour.

Winnie sat in the Bus/RV parking area and I walked down the path to the Visitor Center.

Edgar Kaufmann, Sr. and wife, Liliane were world travelers interested in architecture. Their son, Edgar Jr. happened to join the Taliesin Fellowship which was a communal architectural program created by Frank Lloyd Wright and his wife, Olgivanna.  It was during this period when his parents met Wright and later commissioned him to design Fallingwater. Originally, the site was a summer camp complete with cabins, tennis court, running track clubhouse and swimming pool. It was Edgar, Jr, who donated the estate to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in 1963.

(Stock photo from Internet). If you plan a visit, do it in the summer.

The cantilevered house is built on a cliff with a waterfall. "Fallingwater was revolutionary for its day in that instead of pushing nature aside, Wright incorporated it into the heart of the home. For many, Fallingwater epitomizes what architecture can and should be. It’s said that the house inspired Ayn Rand to write her epic novel, The Fountainhead." His vision gave rise to the term "organic architecture," the harmonious union of art and nature.

Once again I lucked out with a most knowledgeable tour guide. Be it Larry, the Navajo native in Monument Valley, or "Slim Jim" of Cave of the Winds, I must now add Susan N. to the list of those who made the visit an extraordinary experience. What detail! What follows are a sampling of my 75 photos, Groups leave every 10 minutes for the hour long tour. To begin, each group meets at the head of the walkway in the Visitor Center to be greeted by the tour guide. They then walk 1/4 of a mile to the house. I had my walking stick and was offered transportation which I grabbed with gusto. I met the driver, Brian who just retired and now shuttles folks back and forth to the house. I learned a lot about Brian in that three minute ride. He was called at the end of the tour to transport me back to the Visitors Center.

Susan has been giving tours now for 20 years.

Fallingwater's main house was built mostly by local craftspeople in two years, 1936-1938.

All Potterville limestone was quarried nearby

The main house totals 5,330 sq. ft. of which almost half is outdoor terraces. 
The guest house totals 1,700 sq. ft.

Only two colors were used throughout the building: a light ochre for the concrete and Wright's signature Cherokee red for the steel.

The original estimate for the house was $55,000 (big bucks during the bleak
Great Depression years)

Final total cost was $155,000 which included $8,000 in architect's fee and...

...$4,500 for furnishings.

That would be $2.3 million in today's dollars.

Stairway to the upper guest suite and viewing area.

The swimming pool; only two feet deep.

Photographs were not allowed in some of the interior rooms of the building. There was an extensive collection of books. In the guest suite, part of the room is built around a boulder jutting in from cliffside. Depending on the water table, the crevice would yield spring water that would trickle down the rock into another crevice in the floor and find its way back outside.

Back at the Visitors Center, a Café served lunch.

Fresh baked pastries as well

I needed to ask permission for photographing a beautiful gift shop.
As you would expect, an extensive collection of works depicting Frank Lloyd Wright
that spanned seven decades. He passed away in 1959 in Arizona at the age of 89.

He designed more than 1,000 structure, 532 of which were realized. Prior to Fallingwater, when asked which of his designs he thought was the best, he said, the Guggenheim Museum.

Thanks for joining me on this terrific tour. From here, I'm back on the road to Hersheypark RV Campground. Tomorrow, Monday, I 'll be on a 1:00 p.m. tour of Indian Echo Caverns 7 miles away in Hummelstown, PA. Hope to see you there.