When Chip and Joanna Gaines announced “The Last Wright,” Magnolia Network’s newest series, they tapped into America’s enduring fascination with architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The show follows mother-daughter duo Debbie and Sarah Dykstra as they build RiverRock, the last unbuilt Wright design, based on plans discovered on his drawing board after his death in 1959.
But while TV viewers will watch a dream take shape in Ohio, travelers can go even further. In western Pennsylvania, Wright’s legacy is not only on display—it’s open to visitors in a way no other destination in the world can claim.
In the Laurel Highlands of western Pennsylvania, a scenic, wooded stretch about 90 minutes from Pittsburgh, you can step directly into Wright’s world. Visitors can tour his most famous work, Fallingwater, wander through the hillside retreat of Kentuck Knob, and, most memorably, check in for the night at Polymath Park, the only place in the world where you can actually sleep inside a Frank Lloyd Wright house.
Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1937 masterpiece in Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands, integrates nature and design with cantilevered terraces, stone floors, and walls of windows overlooking Bear Run. Commissioned by Edgar J. Kaufmann, the house remains one of Wright’s most iconic works and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Fallingwater: The icon over water
Before heading to Polymath Park, though, start your Wright pilgrimage at Fallingwater. No Wright itinerary is complete without the house that put him on the map in 1937. Commissioned in 1935 by Pittsburgh department store magnate Edgar Kaufmann, the house is dramatically cantilevered over a rushing stream called Bear Run. Wright’s bold design features—stone floors echoing the rock below, terraces hovering above waterfalls, walls of glass dissolving into nature—made it an instant jewel.
Travel writer Megan DeMatteo visits Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1935 masterpiece built over a waterfall in Mill Run, Pa. Under repair at the time of the photo, the UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of Wright’s most celebrated works, drawing visitors from around the world. (Photo by Veronica Bareman.)
Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Fallingwater now welcomes thousands of visitors annually. Guided tours highlight Wright’s vision of organic architecture, the concept of homes living with their surrounding landscapes instead of against them.
Kentuck Knob, Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1956 Usonian home in Chalk Hill, Pa., blends into the Allegheny Mountains with native sandstone, tidewater cypress, and a copper roof that patinas with age. Built for ice cream magnates I.N. and Bernadine Hagan, the National Historic Landmark offers sweeping views of the Youghiogheny River Gorge and a glimpse into Wright’s late-career vision.
Kentuck Knob: a hillside retreat
Just a short drive away, Kentuck Knob shows Wright in a more intimate mode. Designed for the Hagan family, owners of a Pittsburgh ice cream business, the 1956 Usonian house is built into a Fayette County hillside of sandstone and red cypress. Hexagonal motifs run through the design, from skylights to terrace stones, while trellis cutouts scatter honeycomb-shaped light across the floors. From the terrace, views stretch nearly 40 miles across the Youghiogheny River Gorge.
Unlike the dramatic cantilevers of Fallingwater, Kentuck Knob feels lived-in and personal, proof that Wright’s genius extended from monumental statements to intimate family homes. The house is also full of Wright’s idiosyncrasies, including an absurdely tiny kitchen and a 21-inch-wide hallway that guests have to shuffle through sideways. This architectural flourish makes the space memorable, certainly—but not exactly practical.
Mäntylä, originally built in Minnesota and relocated beam by beam to Polymath Park in 2019, embodies Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian vision with Cherokee red floors, ribbon windows, and built-in furnishings. Today, guests can spend the night in this rare Wright design, waking to nature views just as the architect intended.
Polymath Park: the one where you can sleep inside (and touch things!)
By the time dusk falls, the air cools and the forest hushes, but the experience at Polymath Park is only beginning. This 130-acre estate is the only place in the world where travelers can do something unthinkable at Fallingwater or Kentuck Knob: spend the night inside Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture—and yes, even touch, sit on, and drink from the items inside!
Two Frank Lloyd Wright original houses sit on the property and allow guests to stay in them: the Duncan House, moved from Illinois and rebuilt in 2007, and Mäntylä, relocated from Minnesota in 2019. Both show Wright’s signature style, with long ribbon windows overlooking the forest, natural walls that blend into the hillside, and floors painted in his trademark Cherokee red.
Mäntylä was disassembled and shipped, beam by beam, from Minnesota to Polymath Park and, like Kentuck Knob, also bears Wright’s idiosyncratic fingerprints. For instance, he was known for scaling door frames to his own modest height, which forces taller guests to duck or pivot sideways to pass through—proof of the architect’s uncompromising “my way or the highway” approach.
But that didn’t stop us from playing a spirited game of cards!
Travel writers play cards inside Mäntylä, a Frank Lloyd Wright–designed home relocated from Minnesota to Polymath Park, during an overnight stay in Aug. 2025. (Photo by Scott Herder of Bobo and Chichi.)
Quirks don’t end there: Our tour guide told us that Mäntylä’s fireplace once belched smoke so badly it produced a five-foot flame before it was corrected. And throughout the home, hidden cabinetry and sliding doors pop up in unexpected places—charming in theory, but sometimes maddening in use.
Unlike a museum, these homes are set up for overnight stays. Guests can make coffee in Wright’s small kitchens, read on the built-in benches, and wake up to views of the woods outside their windows, just as Wright intended.
Shipping containers hold a disassembled Frank Lloyd Wright–designed house awaiting reconstruction at Polymath Park in Acme, Pa., on Sept. 2025. The 130-acre estate is the only place in the world where guests can stay overnight in original Wright homes.
Polymath Park also has two homes designed by Wright’s apprentices, and the collection is still growing. A newly acquired Wright design has already arrived, stored in shipping containers, waiting to be rebuilt on the property.
Guests at Tree Tops Restaurant at Polymath Park dine among the trees.
Dinner at Tree Tops: Wright-inspired dining in the trees
Eventually, you’ll work up an appetite admiring Wright’s work all day. At Polymath Park, you’ll find Tree Tops Restaurant, once the private home of owners Tom and Heather Papinchak, is now a Wright-inspired dining room lifted into the trees. Wooden walkways and rope bridges lead guests through the canopy to tucked-away dining rooms where multi-course meals arrive beneath warm wooden beams.
The menu changes seasonally, but it’s connected to the local land, with fresh Pennsylvania ingredients and plating that feels as much like design as cuisine. The amuse-bouche might surprise you! During our stay, the offering was inspired by a 7-Eleven slushie, reimagined with local fruit. Dessert was unforgettable: the pecan shortbread with peaches, topped with a bright vanilla ice cream, was easily the best flavor combination of my summer. Edible flowers adorned the plates, and hand-selected wines rounded out the courses.
So, are you ready to step into Wright’s world? Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands region is the only place on earth where you can tour his famous works by day—and sleep in them by night.
The author’s passion for every trip she writes about is sincere. Some experiences may be hosted, but hosting organizations have no control over articles before they’re published.