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Big Blend Radio

Fallingwater & Beyond: Frank Lloyd Wright's Laurel Highlands

Big Blend Radio · Sep 22, 2026 · 26:09

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On this episode of Big Blend Radio's "Global Adventures" Podcast, travel writer Debbie Stone takes us to the Laurel Highlands of southwestern Pennsylvania. Most people know the area for Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's most famous house, but it's actually a mecca for Wright's work.

Debbie starts at Polymath Park, a private conservation effort by Tom and Heather Papinchak. There, two Wright homes, Duncan House and Mäntylä, were taken apart piece by piece in Illinois and Minnesota and rebuilt in the Pennsylvania woods. She shares what it's like to actually spend the night in Mäntylä, living with Wright's design and his blurring of indoors and outdoors, and waking to a deer crossing the yard. She also describes dinner in a private treehouse-style dining pod at TreeTops Restaurant, with Heather Papinchak as chef.

From there it's on to Kentuck Knob, one of Wright's last projects. It has an "invisible" window, a Woodland Walk with a piece of the Berlin Wall, and a British lord as its current owner. The finale is Fallingwater, the cantilevered masterpiece built over a waterfall so the Kaufmann family could hear the water throughout the house, and now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.


Read Debbie's article:

- https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/frank-lloyd-wright-laurel-highlands


Plan your visit:

- Polymath Park: https://www.polymathpark.com

- Kentuck Knob: https://www.kentuckknob.com

- Fallingwater: https://www.fallingwater.com

- Laurel Highlands: https://www.golaurelhighlands.com


Global Adventures with Debbie Stone:

- Podcast: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/global-adventures-with-debbie-stone

- Magazine: https://www.bigblendmediahouse.com/p/global-adventures-travel-magazine

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Episodes: Big Blend Radio

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