Fallingwater

Fallingwater, a house museum in Stewart Township, Pennsylvania, sits in the Laurel Highlands of the state’s southwestern corner. Frank Lloyd Wright designed the three-story residence, which extends partly over a waterfall on Bear Run stream. It was built as a weekend home for Edgar J. Kaufmann Sr., who owned Pittsburgh’s Kaufmann’s Department Store, and his wife, Liliane. The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has run Fallingwater as a tourist attraction since 1963 and maintains 5,000 acres around the house.

Edgar Kaufmann Sr. had set up a summer retreat for his employees at Bear Run by 1916. After workers stopped using it, the Kaufmanns bought the site in July 1933 and hired Wright in 1934 to design the house. Construction brought several structural problems, including cracked concrete and sagging terraces. The Kaufmanns started using the house in 1937 and later hired Wright to design a guest wing, finished in 1939. Their son, Edgar Kaufmann Jr., kept using the house after his parents died. The Conservancy began public tours in July 1964 and built a visitor center in 1979. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the house underwent major renovations to fix severe structural issues like sagging terraces and poor drainage.

The house has multiple outdoor terraces that are cantilevered—they extend outward from a chimney with no support at the far end. Fallingwater is built from locally quarried stone, reinforced concrete, steel, and plate glass. The first floor holds the main entrance, living room, two outdoor terraces, and the kitchen. The upper stories contain four bedrooms (including a study) and more terraces. Wright designed most of the built-in furniture. Art pieces, textiles, and Tiffany glass objects are placed throughout. Above the main house sits a guest wing with a carport and servants’ quarters.

Fallingwater drew extensive architectural commentary from early on, and by the 1960s it was one of the world’s most discussed modern-style structures. Books, magazine articles, films, and other media have covered it over the years. It is a National Historic Landmark and one of eight buildings in the World Heritage Site “The 20th-Century Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.”

The site lies in Stewart Township, about 72 miles southeast of Pittsburgh, near Pennsylvania Route 381 between Ohiopyle and Mill Run in Fayette County. It is sometimes described as being in Bear Run (the stream below) or Mill Run, but the deeds list Stewart Township. Nearby are the Bear Run Natural Area to the north, Ohiopyle State Park and Fort Necessity National Battlefield to the south, and Uniontown to the west. Fallingwater is one of four Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in southwestern Pennsylvania; the others are Kentuck Knob (about 7 miles southwest), and Duncan House and Lindholm House at Polymath Park in Acme.

The house is named for its location, oriented roughly south-southeast above Bear Run, a tributary of the Youghiogheny River. The upper falls, where the main house sits, is about 20–30 feet high; a lower falls is about 7–10 feet high. At the house, Bear Run is 1,298 feet above sea level. Contrary to common belief, the stream does not pass through the house. It sometimes freezes in winter and dries up in summer. The site sits on buff and gray sandstone from the Pottsville Formation. Before construction, several sandstone boulders were scattered across the grounds. Unlike many country estates, Fallingwater is not on a prominent geographic spot and is not easily visible; forest canopy hangs above it.

North of the main house, atop a hill, is the guest wing, about 90 feet away. This L-shaped building connects to the main house via a curved outdoor walkway. The visitor pavilion, hidden from the main house, includes five open-air wooden structures with pathways, glass-walled wings with bathrooms, exhibit areas, a child-care center, and an open-air ticket office. About a quarter-mile away stands the Barn at Fallingwater, made up of two barns built around 1870 and in the early 1940s.

The grounds contain a small mausoleum for Edgar and Liliane Kaufmann, with doors designed by Alberto Giacometti. Edgar Jr. was cremated, and his ashes were spread around the house. Paths lead through the grounds, including one to the waterfall. Wright designed driveway gates that were never installed; a gate designed by George Longenecker, weighing 1,700 pounds and measuring 5 by 18 feet, was used from 1995 to 2005. Wright also designed unbuilt structures for the estate, including a gatehouse, farmhouse, and various expansions.

In the 1890s, a freemasonry group from Pittsburgh developed a country club on land that includes the Fallingwater site. By 1909, another group of masons had acquired the clubhouse and turned it into the Syria Country Club, which went bankrupt in 1913.