Guide to Visiting Fallingwater in Pennsylvania

Before Fallingtwater, an earlier home was on the same property. It was the Kaufmann’s weekend getaway from the city of Pittsburgh. They would picnic on a big flat rock above the waterfall on Bear Run – The same stone that served as inspiration for Wright’s later designs. It became the hearth for the fireplace in the living room.

 

As you arrive at Bear Run, the house is there before you, across a small bridge. Follow the driveway under a low overhang and enter by way of a small and subtle front door. Wright loved concealing the entrances to the homes he designed. He wanted the house to be able to open up in front of your eyes. Fallingwater is typical, and perhaps the most effective, of his arrival sequences.

 

The big living room and terrace are cantilevered over Bear Run. The windows are set in thin steel frames and painted Wright’s favorite color, Cherokee Red. The impression as you enter the room is that nature surrounds you, presented before you like Japanese screens. The floors are the same kind of stone as the big rock before the hearth.

 

Your docent will explain that the floors are waxed to look as if they are wet, as a nod to the waters of Bear Run. The furniture in the living room is mostly built-in. Wright liked to make it impossible for clients to meddle by rearranging his interior design scheme. 

 

The seating cushions are one of the first uses of foam rubber for furniture upholstery. Two features of the room stand out to visitors. First, the hatch, which opens to a stairway that leads down to a swimming pool in the stream. Second, a huge round kettle on swing arms. It was intended for heating up mulled wine but proved to be too unwieldy to serve that purpose.

 

The kitchen and the bedroom above offer you a chance to see that the corners do not support the house. The guide will open the windows there, so you have the effect of open space. The master bedroom and its terrace allow you to envision what it must have been like to awaken amide nature and to enjoy its beauty.

 

From the main house, an outdoor curving stairway takes you to the guest house perched higher up the hillside. Notice the roof of the stairwell, as it curves and steps upward, too. It is supported by uprights only on one side, an engineering masterpiece. The guest house features a swimming pool and was a favorite retreat of Mrs. Kaufmann.