Frank's House

It’s rare to wake up in the morning and not know that later in the day you’ll cross an item off your bucket list not because you’ve decided it’s unrealistic or unattainable or foolish, but because the item was experienced and it was superlative enough to count for the long term. We must state the obvious: there’s a ton to see in this world so there are wide variances in bucket lists. There are big generic bucket lists, lemming lists, quiet, personal lists and all other sorts to fill a lifetime of wanderlust, genuine curiosity or keeping up with the Joneses. All these lists are fed by tantalizing tales of adventure read in guide books, magazines, literature and travel writing and money-shot cinescopic images seen in movies and soft core television shows following beautiful and fearless people around the globe. As the years pass the few things that kept you awake during history and art classes resonate with you and make it to the list. We know enough to recognize what we’ve studied when we read a travel expose in the New York Times or watch a movie which takes liberty with its set masking one location in the guise of another. Be assured that the treasury at Petra used in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is more magnificent to see after emerging from the mile long Siq than anything captured on film. Most times we plan the pilgrimage to these known and heard-of places. Other times we’ve the good fortune to stumble upon them finding ourselves closer than we had thought.

Being in West Virginia we forget what’s connecting us to the rest of the world. That while we are in WV we think little of the states that border us is indicative of the reality that we think little of WV when we are in Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Ohio. West Virginia is wild, wonderful and ignored. We didn’t realize our campsite at Chestnut Ridge was only 15 miles south of the Mason-Dixon Line. (A line Morgantina knows is right where it should be but always imagines much farther south. Additionally, being north of the Mason-Dixon Line gives Morgantina a slight, unarticulated comfort). Initially there were three reasons to head north of the Line: new shower flip flops, a visit to Panera and an interrupted tour of Uniontown, PA, the home of George C. Marshall, the man with the plan. Thanks to the AAA guide book we found ourselves mostly unprepared and ignorant of southwestern PA’s Laurel Highlands and its diverse attractions which include: biking, summer stock, French and Indian War sites, the Big Mac Museum Restaurant, white water rafting for the experienced and for us, the clueless, the Great Alleghany Passage, beloved rails to trails, and Fort Necessity. All of which will be wonderful to experience some future May or September. The idea of PA is growing on us even though we’re still not considering living there.

So it isn’t the kayaking or tubing that takes the breath away. It is the shock of discovering we were near Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater on PA Route 381, for us, the treasure of the Laurel Highlands. The multistoried stone and concrete cantilevered house was designed in 1935 for the Kaufmann family. Fallingwater is Pellew’s favorite American house and has had a place on the architecture bucket list for two decades. Pellew is amazed at how the house's interior and exterior and the surrounding nature are joined; the house is integrated into the natural landscape and that integration feels seamless whether standing creekside or on one of the cantilevers. The sound of Bear Run’s waterfall can be heard and felt throughout the house. Its effect: tranquility. However, as the tranquility permeates, Pellew’s annoyance that he couldn’t experience Fallingwater without the crowd intensifies. Morgantina is enamored with the design and its execution. She’s inspired and encouraged by Wright. The design of Fallingwater proved to be a personal renaissance for Wright who turned 68 in 1935. He continued to design homes and public buildings including the Guggenheim in NYC until just before his death in 1959. It’s a shake-your-head, mouth wide open, stars in the eyes kind of day. It’s hard to say goodbye.

P.S.
Our description is abbreviated and insufficient and any attempt to further editorialize about Wright and the design of Fallingwater is ridiculous. Fallingwater must be experienced.