Kentuck Knob Pennsylvania by Frank Lloyd Wright

Kentuck Knob
Chalk Hill
Pennsylvania 15421-0305

Frank Lloyd Wright 1954

Kentuck Knob is a light and attractive family home, easier to imagine living in than Wright's nearby Fallingwater. The house is undoubtedly esoteric: it is built on a hexagonal grid, with 60 degree angles pervading everywhere (except for the bathrooms, where the square corners to accommodate the baths are the only right angles in the house). The hexagonal theme generates interesting rooms without feeling as gimmicky as it sounds.

The low, expansive roof is largely cantilevered from a strong stone core built around the hexagonal kitchen. Spared of their supporting role, the walls stop short of the roof, the gap filled in much of the house by a wooden ventilation screen with unglazed holes cut in abstract geometric shapes.

eaves.jpg (48169 bytes) mainroof.jpg (35746 bytes)

The house is built entirely of tidewater red cypress and native fieldstone. Walls of continuous glazing, the ventilation screen described above, and a large 'invisible' window in the sitting room, break down the barriers between inside the house and out. The sitting room's large window is a single sheet of glass set directly in the stone surround, with a matching (and appearing to be continuous) moss garden on each side of the glass.

Simon Glynn 1999 (updated 2006)

How to visit

Kentuck Knob runs guest tours seven days a week, with an option of more -in-depth tours. For times, prices and reservations (which are recommended), please visit www.kentuckknob.com, telephone +1 724 329 1640, or email information@kentuckknub.com.

Unlike the larger Fallingwater, there is no child care center - but there is a sculpture garden for entertainment. The house is a short ride by courtesy bus up the hill from the visitor center; you can go down again by bus, or walk on a good path through woods, a meadow and the sculpture garden.

Kentuck Knob is between 1.5 and 2 hours' drive east of Pittsburgh. Go south on Route 51 to Uniontown bypass. Righht on bypass (119 South to 40 East). 40 East to Chalk Hill. Turn left on Chalk Hill/Ohiopyle Road. Kentuck Knob is about six miles on your right.

It is also just the other side of Ohiopyle from Fallingwater. From Fallingwater, drive south on 381 through Ohiopyle. Turn right after crossing the Meadow Run bridge a the south end of Ohiopyle. Follow winding road for 1.5 miles. At the intersecation at the top of the hill turn left. Kentuck Knob is almost immediately on your left.

Books and other web sites

Click the book titles to view and to order direct from

	Understanding Frank Lloyd Wright's Architecture Donald Hoffmann A highly readable, generalist account of the influences, development and innovations of Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture, well illustrated.
	Wright Sites : A Guide to Frank Lloyd Wright Public Places Arlene Sanderson (editor) A practical visitors' guide to thirty six publicly accessible Frank Lloyd Wright sites, with a straightforward one or two page description of each, with black and white photographs.
www.geocities.com/SoHo/1469 provides both its own Frank Lloyd Wright content and a set of links to other Frank Lloyd Wright sites on the web. All links outside galinsky will open in a new window. Close it when you've finished, or use the Window menu on your browser, to return to galinsky.