Southwest PA

We left Kim and Gia in Ohio and headed to southwest Pennsylvania and camped at Hickory Hollow.

It rained almost the entire drive making it more difficult to maneuver the ole Busse Bus. Worse than that, we had to stop for 110 gallons of diesel.

Ouch!

We got set up in site 102 – it costs us $25/night as part of Passport America, an organization that we belong to. Good price, but not as good as mooch-docking! Here’s our site:

The place also had some amenities:

We laid low for the evening and watch a little TV as we had good access to the southern sky and our Dish satellite locked in.

The following day we headed over to Mill Run to visit the Frank Lloyd Wright (FLW) house called “Fallingwater”. I have wanted to see this house ever since I was a sophomore studying Architecture at the University of Illinois back in the day (80’s). It was FLW’s design that epitomizes his organic architectural philosophy called Prairie Study. This building fell in the middle of his career and really revitalized his practice. The way that he placed the summer house of the Kaufman’s on top of the water fall and used cantilevers to extend the house over the falls earned him a show at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and the cover of Time. Check out the exterior:

Check out these cantilever shots:

Crazy!

Some interior shots of the main living area:

I wasn’t disappointed with our visit. What an exquisite summer house! The house was built in 1936 and it started the modern movement. You can see why! After the Kaufman’s died, their son took over the responsibilities of maintaining the house and the 1960’s he and his partner decided to turn the residence over to the Conservary. Great decision as almost all of the originally design FLW furniture has remained with the structure. Interesting facts: the original estimate from FLW was $35,000 and once completed it cost $155,000. Big bucks for a summer home almost 100 years ago. When the son, Sam, turned it over for public enjoyment he included 1/2 million dollars to bring the home back up to it’s glory of the ’30’s. Fallingwater is an absolute gem of modern architecture and should be added to your bucket list!

After viewing the masterpiece of Fallingwater and the genius of FLW we stopped at two covered bridges on the way back to Hickory Hollow. The first, Kings Covered Bridge, was built initially in 1803 and rebuilt several times over the centuries.

There were people fishing along the shore

The second, Barronvale, was built in 1830 and had survived the test of time.

Look at how far architecture has come over the past 100 years by comparing these simple span bridges to the cantilevered Fallingwater.

Once back home we enjoyed a nice dinner in.

The following day we headed over to see the Flight 93 Memorial near Shanksville, PA. If you remember, Flight 93 was the fourth hijacked place on September 11th, 2001 where the brave passengers and crew rushed the cabin crashing the plane before it could return to Washington D.C. and crash into the US Capitol in the suicide mission of the terrorists. What a wonderful memorial for the 40 passengers and crew that were on the airplane!

The white marbled walls each contains a name of a passenger or crew member. The actual memorial building is contained within the stark white concrete walls in the above picture. The black extension is a walkway of the actual path the plane took before it crashed. Although we were very perplexed regarding the design of the memorial’s building, the presentation of the facts were well laid out and it was extremely interesting reading and listening along. Here’s the crash site itself:

The boulder was placed at the impact location to mark the spot.

The impact spot is identified by the large boulder that was placed there. The forest behind is ”indented” showing where the hemlocks were burned. Visitors are not allowed to get any closer than our picture because it is hallowed ground. However family members are allowed.

We had the opportunity to listen to the park ranger who was outstanding!

We learned a lot of facts: 1) since the crash occurred in a deserted strip mining field the actual plane fragments were found as far as 35 feet into the soft ground, 2) during the struggle to regain control of the plane the terrorists actually tipped the plane back and forth and also porpoised it to try to bounce the passengers back toward the rear of the plane, 3) of the four crash sites (two into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City) and the Pentagon this was the only place that both the flight recorders were recovered along with the credit card that purchased all the tickets. Both were key in identifying who the terrorists were, and 4) the plane was actually flying upside down when it crashed due to the activity of the passengers.

Overlook at the top end of the black walkway showing the path of the flight.

These people were true American Heroes!

Closer to the park’s entrance a wind chime tower was built that houses 40 chimes that represent all the calls that the passengers and crew placed to loved ones before they rushed the terrorists.

The large tubular pieces are the chimes.

When we exited the park there was a sign for a new memorial for the Global War on Terrorism. It was in the early stages of development:

Here’s the vision:

It should be outstanding once completed!

On the drive back we stopped for ice cream at Molly’s:

Afterwards we had another wonderful meal of Bison rib-eyes at the coach.

The next day we had had another tour which included lunch reservations at Tree Tops located in Polymath Park.

Polymath Park is a 120 acre location where two Frank Lloyd Wright houses have been relocated and two additional houses by his apprentice, Peter Berndtson, had built there. All four houses are available for overnight rentals. There are plans to include more houses over time as they become available. One such house is Lloyd Wright’s (FLW’s son) Birdwing which is currently in containers on the property awaiting location approval. After lunch twelve of us loaded up in a minivan to the first residence called the Balter House designed by Berndtson. Here’s the exterior sporting cantilevers:

A simple designed summer home that incorporates skylights in the living area and kitchen. A very standard type design of Usonian type architecture.

Large main room, overhangs to block the sun in the summer, minimal windows to the street view, large windows on the sides and backyard, and finally a central fireplace.

The next residence was the FLW’s Duncan Home which is one of nine FLW’s ”tract” homes built throughout the United States. The Duncan Home was originally built in Lisle, IL in 1957. The exterior includes a carport and horizontal lines that epitomizes the Prairie Architecture of FLW:

The Usonian interior is very typical for the style:

The final residence that we saw (the fourth one wasn’t available for viewing that day) was the FLW designed Lindholm Home moved from Minnesota and was named Mantyla, which means ”of the pines” in Finnish. Check out the exterior: