Celebrate Frank Lloyd Wright’s 150th Birthday with Special Package at Nemacolin Woodlands Resort

There’s much to see and do on the 2,000-acre campus of Nemacolin Woodlands Resort—everything from animal safaris to zip lining—but guests are also encouraged to explore their surroundings throughout the mountainous region known as Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands.

Among the attractions within a short drive of Nemacolin are three homes designed by America’s most famous architect, Frank Lloyd Wright. To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Wright’s birth on June 8, 1867, Nemacolin is offering a special overnight package that will be available from June 1 through August 31. The Frank Lloyd Wright 150th Birthday Package features luxurious overnight accommodations at the resort’s Falling Rock boutique hotel, which is a tribute to Wright’s organic architectural style.

The hotel was designed by David Merritt, who studied at Wright’s school at Taliesin and then incorporated the master’s philosophies into his own work. Falling Rock overlooks the 18th green of Nemacolin’s Mystic Rock golf course and will soon also overlook a second Pete Dye-designed golf course, Shepherd’s Rock, which is scheduled to open in July.

The hotel features 42 rooms, each of which is served by a butler. In addition to this top level of service, guests enjoy a pillow menu, nightly cookie turndown and exclusive access to an infinity pool.

The package also includes tickets to Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob, two famous Pennsylvania homes designed by Wright; breakfast for each guest on each morning of the stay; a $150 resort amenity credit that can be applied to any of more than 70 activities on site; The Wright Perspective souvenir book; and a welcome amenity.

Fallingwater, one of Wright’s most celebrated creations, was built between 1936 and 1939 for the Kaufmanns, a prominent family from Pittsburgh. What made it instantly famous is the fact that Wright incorporated a 30-foot waterfall into the design, allowing the house to stretch out over this natural element. Wright’s tendency to design structures in harmony with their natural surroundings was his calling card, and Fallingwater has been called “the best all-time work of American architecture.” Today the house is a National Historic Landmark.

Kentuck Knob was one of Wright’s last designs; he took on the project in 1953 at the age of 86, just five years before his death. This house belonged to the Hagan family, contemporaries of the Kaufmanns and admirers of their home at Fallingwater. Whereas the Kaufmanns’ house is at one with a waterfall, Kentuck Knob appears to be part of its mountain surroundings, simultaneously dramatic and serene.

A third Wright creation, Duncan House, was relocated from its original location in Illinois to Polymath Park in the nearby town of Acme, where two homes designed by Wright’s apprentice, Peter Berndtson, now stand near the work of the master. All are open for tours and the complex is less than an hour’s drive from Nemacolin.

Wright designed more than 1,000 structures in his lifetime and saw more than 500 of them to completion, but the high concentration of homes open for public tours in a setting as beautiful as the Laurel Highlands is an uncommon occurrence. There’s no better time than now, when so many Wright buildings are celebrating the sesquicentennial of their creator, to coordinate a visit to this region, and no better place than Nemacolin Woodlands Resort from which to base such an architecturally focused trip.

Nemacolin Woodlands Resort also features  Lautrec, chef Kristin Butterworth‘s Forbes Five-Star, AAA Five-Diamond dining venue located within the resort’s Chateau Lafayette hotel for your dining pleasure. Frank Lloyd Wright 150th Birthday Package can be booked now by visiting Nemacolin online or calling 866-399-6957, and pricing starts at $614.

Nemacolin Woodlands Resort is located at 1001 Lafayette Dr. in Farmington, Pa.; phone: (866) 344-6957.

  • Photos, top to bottom: Nemacolin Woodlands Resort. Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, Mary Bigham