Facing a 3-month renovation of our 20-year-old condo, my husband Rich and I had to find other accommodations during this period. For the most part, we needed to be in town in order to answer questions and deal with any issues that might arise during a large renovation. But we also decided that this would be a great time to get away for a couple of weeks and thus planned a road trip in September that would take us through New York State and Pennsylvania. The route of this trip revolved around a long-time dream of mine, which was to rent and stay overnight at one of the Frank Lloyd Wright designed or inspired properties in Polymath Park, PA.
The two-week trip that we planned turned into a bit of an architectural tour where we booked interesting accommodations of different design styles for each of our major stopping points. In
East Aurora, NY, we would be staying at the
Roycroft Inn, an
Arts and Crafts styled hotel. In
Kane, PA, we would spend two nights in the
Georgian-styled
Kane Manor once owned by a Civil War general. Our one night in
Polymath Park, PA would be in the
Balter House, a
Prairie-styled house designed by Peter Berndtson, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. The two houses actually designed by Wright himself were significantly more expensive to rent, but we could tour them the next morning. Moving on to
Pittsburgh where we would stay 5 nights, we found the
Mansions on Fifth which consisted of the main
McCook Mansion in the
Elizabethan Revisionist style owned by John McCook, attorney to Henry Clay Frick, as well as a smaller manor named
Amberson House that McCook built for his daughter in the
Tudor style. We ended up staying the Amberson House but still had access to the lobby and bar of the McCook Mansion, so it was the best of both worlds. Then finally on our last stop in
Buffalo, we chose the
Richardson Hotel which was once part of the Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane. It has since been renovated but still features immensely high ceilings and ridiculously long corridors. Originally designed by architect H.H.Richardson, the hotel is of course in the eponymous “
Richardsonian Romenesque” architectural style, which was also used by architect E.J.Lennox to design the Old City Hall in Toronto.
In addition to admiring architectural design including tours of multiple Frank Lloyd Wright homes, our trip would also involve visits to art galleries in Pittsburgh and Buffalo, hiking in the Allegheny National Forest, exploring a sculpture garden and searching for “Phil” sculptures in Punxsutawney. We saw same fabulous sights of both man-made and natural beauty and had some amazing adventures on this trip. Details to follow...
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