Wright house moved from Ill. to Pa. makes trinity of attractions

ACME, Pa. -- Western Pennsylvania has long been home to two of renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright's best known works, Kentuck Knob and Fallingwater.

Now, a third Wright creation, the Duncan House, has been moved here from Lisle, Ill., offering visitors a broad architectural experience -- tours of two impressive homes and an overnight stay in a 1950s-era house.

Each of the homes is a different style, providing an overview of the artists' work in a 30-mile radius, making it one of just about a dozen places nationwide where several Wright buildings are on display in a concise area.

"This is the trinity for us," said Patricia Coyle, director of marketing at Kentuck Knob. "We sell fantasy here because people come through here and they are transcended from their everyday life into Frank Lloyd Wright's vision."

Fallingwater, designed for the Kaufmann family of the department store fortune, is an upscale home that cost $155,000 in 1937, or $2.1 million today. The house's concrete terraces flow over and alongside the Bear Run waterfall, giving the appearance that it is one with nature.

Just seven miles from Fallingwater, Kentuck Knob was built in 1956 for the Hagans, who owned the largest dairy farm west of the Alleghenies. The stone house with its copper roof has a hexagonal theme. The six-sided shape aligns the overhangs and fills the skylights as the house stands in grand style over the Youghiogheny River gorge.

Just 15 miles from there -- but about a 30-minute drive along winding mountain roads -- is the Duncan House. A more modest, prefabricated Usonian, it is one of only nine of this type ever built.

Carefully reconstructed on the 125-acre Polymath Park Resort, the home opened in June to overnight guests, nearly a year after the grueling process of putting it back together began.

"Every day was problem-solving really ... The challenge was not only rebuilding a house built 50 years earlier, but one that had fallen into disrepair," said Laura Nesmith, the resort's director, explaining that many parts had to be refurbished as construction was in process.