CalExpeditions

Kentuck Knob…It’s a House!

Written by

dennis

in

And that’s not a typo…it really is called Kentuck Knob. According to legend, a colonizer left New York for Kentucky to wrest land from the native Americans. But he got to western Pennsylvania, loved the place and stayed. Apparently he decided that, if he called a piece of Pennsylvania Kentucky, he could declare victory. Somehow or another, those dwelling therein lost the “y”.

There was a family, the Hagans, who became rich in western Pennsylvania by selling ice cream. They were impressed by a nearby house, Fallingwater, learned that the architect was Frank Wright and hired him to design a house. Frank was well known for designing with nature and designed the house to integrate with its setting. The result was impressive with an almost-excessive attention to detail.

You can tell that the house is important, because only important houses get brass plaques.
The floor plan is based on a hexagonal grid of equilateral triangles which, when overlapped, form parallelograms. This design language is carried throughout the house, as shown in this hexagonal skylight.
The back side of the house is embedded in the hillside. This side rises like a great prow.
The current owner of Kentuck Knob is an unknown Englishman named Baron Palumbo (not kidding). He is a collector of practically anything, including this chunk of the Berlin Wall. He has numerous other sculptures, which he has scattered throughout the grounds.
Xena, the Warrior Princess, prowls the early morning fog.

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