Fallingwater Marks 75th Anniversary
MILL RUN (KDKA) -- It is considered by many architects to be America's most outstanding private home.
Fallingwater is celebrating its 75th anniversary.
The house on Bear Run is one of Frank Lloyd Wright's crowning achievements.
Department store owner Edgar Kaufmann commissioned the great architect to build a house like no other.
Fallingwater Director Linda Waggoner started here as a guide in 1965 when she was a high school student.
"The day I came for my interview, I came down that path and around that bend, I knew this was extraordinary," she recalled. "I really felt in my gut almost that it would really change my life."
She has edited a book that celebrates the 75th anniversary filled with photographs a year in the making.
Christopher Little came down from his home in Connecticut to photograph Fallingwater in every season.
The Kaufmann family never intended to build a house over the waterfall.
"They expected the house to have a view of the water, but when they realized they were not going to be able to see the waterfall from the house, they were surprised," Waggoner said. "But they also had great faith in Wright and Wright was a great salesman and he expected that they were getting something truly extraordinary."
Fallingwater was passed down to Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., who deeded the property to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy in 1963. Since then, millions of visitors have passed through the home.
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