Synopsis.
An unusually complete chronicle of the planning, construction, and development of the house and site, plus the experience of living in a Wright masterpiece and mecca for Wright aficionados. Includes stories, 150 b&w photos, a color photo section, plans, original correspondence, and more.

A Usonian Masterpiece.
Architect Gerald Lee Morosco, AIA, a former Taliesin Fellow and Wright expert, explains in his foreword that this particular house at this time in Wright's career was an unusually fine success, pre-occupied as Wright was with large institutional projects such as the Guggenheim Museum. The Hagans were able to capture Wright's personal interest and attention, causing what could have been a minor example of his Usonian residential architecture to result in a masterpiece of the genre.

Kentuck Knob has been relatively unknown to the general public, even though it is located within a few miles of Fallingwater, the most famous and important house in America, and also designed by Wright. Still in private hands (although no longer in the Hagan family), Kentuck Knob is now open to the public and its fame is spreading rapidly. People who visit both houses are awed by Fallingwater, but want to live at Kentuck Knob

A Mountain Home.
Bernardine and I.N. Hagan embarked on the adventure of a lifetime in the early 1950s when they engaged Frank Lloyd Wright to design and build their house on a mountaintop in southwestern Pennsylvania. The Hagans were natives of the area and wanted a permanent residence, not a weekend retreat. While Wright provided a great house, it was the Hagans who made it a home. This is their journey, not just of design and construction, but also of a full life lived for over thirty years on one of the most spectacular sites in the country for a Frank Lloyd Wright house and, quite possibly, Wright's warmest residence.

250 Images, Photos, Art, and Documents.
Luckily for the reader, the author's husband was an accomplished amateur photographer who took thousands of photographs of Kentuck Knob from its beginnings as a denuded hilltop through its transformation into a beautiful, comfortable home with marvelously landscaped grounds. I.N. Hagan also recorded the family's life at Kentuck in their almost thirty years on the mountain, providing a sense of what it was like to actually live there.

Charming stories, documents, original correspondence, a color photo section, 150 black and white photos, and even a Taliesin marmalade recipe delivered by one of Wright's apprentices will make this a fascinating book for Wright fans everywhere.

Foreword by Gerald Lee Morosco
Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Beginnings
2. Planning
3. Construction
4. Landscaping
5. Furnishings
6. The Seal
7. Landscaping continues
8. Perils of the driveway
- Color Photos -
9. Carport tales
10. Visitors
11. A fine home
12. A choice of place and name
13. Tables
14. Decorating
15. A greenhouse and fuel crisis
16. Living with nature
17. Mountain neighbors
18. Changes
19. Looking back
Afterword
Appendix 1: Letter from Lord Peter Palumbo
Appendix 2: Caught In A Hawk's Eye
Appendix 3: Additional correspondence between I.N. Hagan and Taliesin
Appendix 4: An interesting aside
Index