Pennsylvania - part 1

 July 7, 2019 - July 11, 2019

Elkins, WV to Confluence, PA

Confluence, PA is a town that sits below an earthen dam on the Youghiogheny River with the Army Corps of Engineer's campground we stayed in actually sitting right up against the dam.  I was not exactly comfortable with that arrangement.  There seems to be something fundamentally unsound with the notion of a pile of dirt holding back a huge volume of water in a lake. 

Youghiogheny Earthen Dam

Youghiogheny Dam Spillway.

A common site all through Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania were these wild orange day lillies.
Unfortunately this is not a very good picture but we enjoyed seeing them all along the various roads we traveled. 

By staying at Confluence, PA we were in a very good position to visit two homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and a fort built by George Washington.

Kentuck Knob - a FLW designed home built for I.N. and Bernadine Hagen who made their fortune in ice cream! It's hard to believe but Mr. Wright only set foot on the property one time, when construction was underway.  He used maps and pictures of the property to come up with his design.

Unfortunately no pictures are allowed of the interior of the home but here's a look at the exterior.

Driveway and front entrance to Kentuck Knob.
The garages (see below) are off to the left.
All the stone used in the construction was mined from the same property.

The house is built on a hexagonal design, so it has no 90 degree corners.

Window and overhang detail.

Rear of the home.  The living room is to the right.
Notice the light patterns on the floor along the walkway. 

The light in the previous picture comes from these holes in the roof which have no covers over them.

Landscaping in the back of the home.

Waterfall and pond on the bedroom side of the home.

View of the backside of the home.

A short walk from the house takes you to this wonderful view of the mountains in Western Pennsylvania.

The current owner of Kentuck Knob collects art and has many pieces displayed both inside and outside of the home.
This is an actual piece of the Berlin Wall.

Fun collection of bird houses near the gift store at Kentuck Knob.

 The second home designed by FLW in this area was the much better known "Falling Water" which was just named a UNESCO World Heritage site.

 

This is the first view of the house as you come down the path from the visitor center.
Once again, all the rock used in the construction was mined on the property.

The owners had direct access to the stream over which the house was built. 

Walkway to the front entrance.
In the upper right of the picture you can see the guest house.

Virtually every room had it's own private patio.
Note the rock on the right.  It forms an integral part of the home.

Detail of the rock and the construction materials.

A look over the side at the stream.
The pool of water nearest the bottom of the picture falls to the stream in the middle of
the picture which then falls to a stream below it.

The classic view of "Falling Water."

When we went to Fort Necessity we really weren't expecting much but the history surrounding the fort and the man who would become our first president was very interesting.

Colonel George Washington of the Virginia Militia

In 1754, as a young 22 year old Colonel in the Virginia State Militia, George Washington was given the task of clearing a path for a road into the Ohio Country in order to solidify England's claim over  the area.  He and his men encountered French troops in the area and a battle ensued.  The leader of the French troops was killed in the encounter.  Knowing the French would retaliate, Washington and his men withdrew to a rare natural meadow near the road they were building. There they built what Washington called "a fort of Necessity" to protect themselves from the French. 

Recreation of Fort Necessity.
Kinda small isn't it!

Once the "fort" was built, he and his men continued work on the road.  When the French arrived a bloody battle occurred with the French taking the upper hand.  Finally a truce was called and deliberations between the French and Washington's translator began.  Washington agreed to the terms set forth although he had to take the word of his translator as to what he was agreeing to.  One of the things he unknowingly "agreed" to was that he had assassinated the leader of the French troops in the earlier battle in the woods. Had he known that he would never have signed the agreement.  In addition to admitting to assassinating the French leader, it was the first and only time Washington ever surrendered.  He and what remained of his troops, headed back east.

The small battle in the woods, known as the Battle of Jumonville Glen, which led to the battle at Fort Necessity, turned out to be the first battle in the French and Indian War (aka The Seven Years War in Europe).  Although it was never called a World War, battles occurred in Europe, Africa, North America, the Caribbean and Asia, pretty much qualifying it for such a title.

The visitor center also had a nice exhibition on "The Nation Road" which passes very near Fort Necessity.  Having traveled to the Fort Necessity area and back in 1784, before he was President, George Washington called for a new, improved road to be built. He believed it would open up trade between the Atlantic Coast and the interior of the U.S.  Built between 1811 and 1818 between Cumberland, MD and Wheeling, WV the "road" partially followed the road Washington himself had built in 1754.  It was the first Nationally funded road built in the U.S.  From 1825 - 1845 the road was extended across Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.

Along the road taverns sprung up where people traveling the "road" could stop for the night or stage line could change out their horses.  The Mount Washington Tavern, which lay along side the National Road, can be found right near Fort Necessity.

The tavern from back and side.

The bar room

The parlor

The dining room

The kitchen

One of the upstairs bedrooms

Another bedroom.  Generally you slept with others in the same room, often in the same bed.
The sign in this bedroom provided this statement by Frances Trollope, author of Domestic Manners of the Americans -
"We found linen on the beds which they assured us had only been used a few nights..."

Another bedroom.  Men and women slept in different rooms.
Note the trundle bed under the bed on the left.

Looks like a nice place to stay after a long day in a stagecoach.