Building Name/Owner: I. N. Hagan House ("Kentuck Knob") Location: Ohiopyle Rd. Chalk Hill, PA Year Built: 1954 Mr. Hagan owned a dairy business and had had some business dealings with his neighbor Edgar Kaufman, the owner of Fallingwater. Because of this, he sought out the services of Frank Lloyd Wright when he decided to have a new house built. Hagan owned about 80 acres of property in the Kentuck district of Stewart township. As he did at Taliesin, Wright decided to place their house in the brow of Kentuck Knob. The house is built into the slope of the hill so that at one end, it appears to grow out of the hillside, while at the other end cuminates in a massive stone prow.
From the driveway, the public facade of the house greets you. As he typically did in his Usonian houses, Wright presents a very private face on the public side of the house; the only windows are clerestory windows near the top of the stone wall.
The house is designed on a hexagonal grid. Unlike many of his other Usonian houses, Kentuck Knob does not have a Cherokee red concrete floor with the unit grid scored in it; the living and dining areas have stone floors, the kitchen cork, and the bedrooms are carpeted.
The living room has a south wall which is primarily glass; the doors here lead out into a terrace with hexagonal skylights in the eaves. The living room features a massive stone fireplace that dominates the internal wall of the living room. Built in seating and bookcases span the north wall of the living room, just below clerestory windows with decorative wood cutouts. At the opposite end from the fireplace, a stone planter is half inside the building and half outside. The sheet of glass dividing this planter is mitred directly into the stone wall, dissolving the boundary between the interior and exterior.
Part of the living room terrace is enclosed to create the dining room, which has a lower ceiling to further articulate the space. The cypress table is built on the same hexagonal grid and conforms to the angles of the room.
The workspace (as Wright called the kitchen) is a massive stone tower at the core of the building, with an off-center skylight. It is larger than many of Wright's Usonian workspaces; Mrs. Hagan loved to cook and insisted on an adaquate kitchen.
The house also has three bedroooms. The master bedroom is embedded into the side of the hill — the windows give a close up view of the surrounding terrain. The master bedroom also features a unique hexagonal fireplace.
Kentuck Knob is presently owned by Lord Peter Palumbo and his wife Hayat. It is open for tours, see their website for tour information.
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