Fallingwater

 

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Today I got to cross out another item on my Bucket List. Joe and I went to visit Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's iconic house in southwestern Pennsylvania. And I have to say, the experience exceeded my expectations. the house was just stunning!

 But first, when I woke up, I had to put last night's plan into effect. I took a Covid test, which thank goodness came out negative. Then I went online and reserved our same campsite for tonight. And then I put my feet up for a little while and relaxed!

 We had a 12:30 pm reservation for our tour, but all too soon, I realized we needed to hustle. We took the Jeep  down the mountain, commenting at how incredibly steep the road was even for a Jeep. No wonder we'd had so much trouble getting up to the campground last night! Fallingwater was only about a 15 minute drive away once we made it down. There is a small touristy town at the base of the mountain, with the park office, a lot of places to rent rafts, kayaks, bikes, etc, and of course ice cream and souvenir shops. I made a note of some good places we could pull up to tomorrow in order to reattach the Jeep to the RV-- we'd already decided NOT to hook up until we reached the bottom of the mountain.

We arrived at Fallingwater, and went to the Visitor's Center, where our tour was confirmed. We had some time to wait, so we checked out the little cafe and I looked in the store at all the FLW-themed items. You an furnish your whole house with the FLW "look", but it's nothing without the architecture.

Our tour began with our guide handing us ear buds and a small speaker. When she spoke, our little speakers picked up her voice for us. This way, she could talk and we could hear her even if we weren't walking right beside her. They started this system during Covid, and Joe and I thought it was brilliant-- we could hear her even when we were looking around at the scenery, hear her answers to other people's questions, and all in all, it was a very good system.

 We walked through the grounds and heard about FLW's career and about Edward and Liliane Kaufmann, who commissioned the house. They had been coming to the property for years in the summer just to get away from the city (Pittsburgh), but they wanted to live there during the year. Their son, Edward Jr., had studied architecture with FLW, and he recommended that they hire Wright.They realized soon enough that although this was their private residence, Fallingwater was much more than that-- it deserved to be seen by the public. So they set up a trust and donated the house and grounds to the state, with the understanding it would remain open to the public.

As we came down the walkway and got our first glimpse of the house, I was just blown away. I had the same feeling I've had with other sites (and sights!) that I've seen numerous times in photos, and then got to see in person. It was just so much MORE than I'd expected. I could fill this blog with photographs of the exterior alone, it was just so stunning.

The tour took us through the entire house, although photos are only allowed on the first floor. The first floor was designed on the same kind of "open floor plan" that is so popular today (but was rare then)-- the dining room and living room/conversation areas are all just one huge space, surrounded by windows looking into the woods around the house. The river runs beneath the cantilevered terraces, and there is even a staircase directly from the living room down to the riverside. When the glass encloser to the stairs was open, it provided cooling air coming off the cold water. The kitchen was also on this floor, and although we couldn't go in, we could look at it through the doorway. The entire space was constructed of only four materials-- stone, glass, wood, and steel. We wandered all over while our guide pointed out small details and answered questions. 

Joe looks at stairway down from living room

From there we went upstairs-- the second floor had the "master bedroom" and Mr. Kaufman's study. The latter had this great window configuration by his desk, which allowed the window to actually swing into the room and open completely, allowing the sound of the rushing river to come into the space. Every bedroom had its own bath and its own terrace. The hallways, in contrast, were narrow and felt like little tunnels leading between the living areas. There was plenty of natural stone in the walls, adding to the tunnel effect.

View from first floor terrace of river rushing away from house

We went out onto the second floor terrace and from there walked up an outside staircase to the third floor, which had Edward Jr.'s bedroom. He had moved his bed to a little alcove on the other side of the floor (still connected to the main room) where the sun poured in from three sides--it was delicious! The walls of the staircase going down from that floor were lined with bookcases filled with Edward Jr.'s books. In fact, all the furnishings were original--the family's own stuff. They had wanted the space to really represent the fact that it was a HOME first and foremost before it became a public space.

Finally, we walked from the second floor up to the guest quarters, which were a separate building. The staircase canopy was an amazing concrete ribbon which swooped around with the curving stairs. At the top, the house had a small living room and bedroom, plus of course a terrace. There was also a "plunge pool" fed naturally from the natural stream dripping from the rocks. Apparently the family used this pool quite a bit for a quick dip.

Stairs down to the river from the living room

All in all, we thought the tour was very well done and the buildings were simply fabulous. We were so glad we had come. When we were finished with our tour, we went into the gallery (part of the visitor's center complex) and looked at photos and original documents related to the building of the house. We got something to drink, and then came home. The tour tickets allow you to wander around the grounds, but we didn't do much wandering-- climbing all those stairs, and then walking back to the visitor center was enough activity for us.

Kitchen

 

After that, it was a quick trip back "home" to the RV. But we did make one more stop-- at Cucumber Falls, which is in the park and was right on our way back up. The falls were very pretty and worth the 10 minute stop. Then when we got back, Joe immediately took a nap; I walked the dog and did some reading, and then I took a nap too. And that was our day-- dinner, and I started blogging this trip. I would consider today a success!! And I was SO glad that I had changed my plans... neither of us would have been up for driving for almost 2 hours just to spend the night in a Walmart lot. We can drive a little further tomorrow instead.

Cucumber Falls