Wright house right setting

The road that leads to Kentuck Knob - a home designed almost 50 years ago by Frank Lloyd Wright - climbs steadily and is flanked by hundreds of trees. The house, which is atop a scenic mountainous knoll in southwestern Pennsylvania's Allegheny Mountains, does not come into view immediately. Instead, a visitor catches intriguing glimpses of the masterpiece through the woods.

Kentuck Knob, now on the National Register of Historic Places, is a perfect illustration of the celebrated architect's comment that a house should be "a noble consort to man and the trees."

In reality, though, there were no trees on the property when Wright was asked to design the home in 1953.

That year, Bernardine and I.N. Hagan were living in a farmhouse on two acres in Uniontown, Pa., and purchased a little more than 79 acres on which to build a new home.

Mrs. Hagan recalls: "There was not a tree on the entire property; it was all planted with corn." Eventually, the couple planted 8,000 tree seedlings on the grounds, which converted the farmland into a forested, private getaway.

"We never had the slightest idea we would ever build a home like [Kentuck Knob]," Mrs. Hagan says. "My salary as a teacher, when we got married [during the Depression], was $900 a year."

But the Hagans owned an ice cream company, which had prospered, so they were financially well-off by the '50s. They had also become friends with the Kaufmann family of Pittsburgh, owners of Fallingwater, one of Wright's best-known designs.

Fallingwater, used by the Kaufmanns as a weekend retreat, was located about seven miles from the Hagans' new property. So it was natural for the Hagans to be invited for a visit one August Saturday, and when they spent time at Fallingwater, they fell in love with the house.

Would Wright build one for them, the Hagans wondered. Edgar Kaufmann Sr. offered this piece of advice on dealing with the renowned architect: Telephone him with the request; don't write him a letter, because he won't answer mail.

Feeling a bit diffident, Mr. Hagan ignored the advice and wrote a letter to Wright: "It has been our fond hope that we might someday confer with you about the construction of a house for us in the mountains. We have acquired some land and are ready to explore the possibility of building."

When he received no reply, Hagan finally called Wright, who agreed to their request because of their friendship with the Kaufmanns. Within days, the Hagans were traveling to Wright's studio at his Teliesin estate in Spring Green, Wis.

Mrs. Hagan vividly recalls meeting Wright for the first time. Before contacting him, the Hagans had read a biography of the famous man, which turned out to be a good introduction. Mrs. Hagan's impression of Wright was of an outgoing man who enjoyed talking "about anything under the sun. And everything I'd read about him was true, right down to the cape swung around his neck," she says.

The Hagans spent the day with Wright. She recalled his attentiveness to what they required in a house, as well as their hobbies and interests. "We told him," she says, " 'We want a house with three bedrooms and two baths, all on one floor.' "

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