“WESTSYLVANIA”
“Westsylvania” is the catchy new name for a werewolf-free territory that encompasses 12 disparate counties in western Pennsylvania. Scattered over 500 square miles of pretty country in and around the Allegheny Mountains, it is a fine fall travel option, combining foliage glamour with the added plus of colorful tourist attractions. There are at least seven, counting both of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Masterpieces as one.
Less well known than Fallingwater, is Kentuck Knob. Built in 1953, the home is built on a hexagonal grid, constructed entirely of red cypress and native fieldstone, and looks as if it had just gone up yesterday. In typical Wright fashion, it cuddles itself into its site, which overlooks the Youghiogheny (pronounced yok-a-gay-nee) River Gorge and surrounding mountains. The current English occupants, Lord and Lady Palumbo, have added personal items that diminish the don’t-touch-museum-quality of the glass-walled interior. With its (added) kilim-covered chairs and family photos, it’s an architectural wonder, but also a snug home in which one can picture oneself sipping a cup of hot tea after a long day’s hike through the property’s sculpture gardens. And who but Frank Lloyd Wright could have invented the car port? Here is the prototype.
Fallingwater, in trouble since one of its cantilevered platforms was discovered to be listing and cracking some years ago, is currently being held aloft through some engineering legerdemain of suspension wires. The house’s familiar shape of horizontal concrete slabs still can take one’s breath away, the way it’s fitted into the mountainside to look as if it grew out of it. And the waterfall next to it seems to have been designed for it, instead of vice versa. Inside are all the genius built-ins, skylights, quirky windows and enough seating for all the friends and family of Mr.and Mrs.Kaufman (of the Kaufman department stores) who commissioned Wright to build it, and whose son finally donated it to posterity.
A short drive away in Johnstown is a museum dedicated to the city’s own holocaust. The flood of 1989 is harrowingly depicted in the Johnstown Flood Museum in unforgettable, graphic detail. The exhibits feature the recorded voice of the disaster’s last survivor recounting his own gripping experience, an award-winning documentary film that puts one into the very heart of that day in May, and photos of survivors–some who lost seven or eight children–that touch the heart. The museum is an eye-opening walk through the history of human carelessness and unnecessary loss of the lives of more than 2000 men, women and children.
More cheerful is the Incline Plane, right nearby. It’s a funky trip one can take up a mountain in a vehicle that looks more like a freight elevator than a cable car. It’s the highest and steepest anywhere, and for three dollars, it’s up and then down, with a lunch at the Incline Restaurant and a photo opportunity between. For more fun, head west towards Nemacolin Woodlands in the Laurel Highlands region. This enterprise was the whim of one Joe Hardy, owner of some 400 lumber stores, who bought a broken-down property for three million some five years ago and transformed it into a titanic resort. Whatever one looks for in a vacation brochure is here in person: A couple of golf courses with major credentials, splendiferous swimming pools, world-class restaurants, art, sports clay pigeon shooting, kids’ entertainment, elaborate spa, you-name-it. Activities are available to guests, also to day visitors, in a setting that’s a mixture of Hollywood gradiosity and European ritz.
About an hour’s drive away and not far from Altoona, is the county of Bedford. Collectibles and antiques lovers will find 27 retail outlets scattered through the countryside here; an old hotel now gutted and transformed into three stories of old stuff is right in town. It’s called Founders Crossing, sits on the corner of Pitt and Juliana Streets and also sells local crafts. No matter how long one browses, it’s just not enough.
In the heart of Altoona is the remarkable Pennsylvania Railroad Museum. Even museumphobes will find provocative its three-dimensional displays, featuring a wax-museum type series of exhibits. The most memorable is the story of “Jim”, a black dining car steward who appears here in lifelike form, to present an oral history of his forty-seven years on the PRR on tape. He lived through the civil rights movement and one experiences it with him, getting it through his eyes and ears. Also on view is a re-creation of the typical home of an Italian railroad worker, an authentic barroom and a newsstand, featuring a talking newsboy, who animatedly describes his own life.
Last in the Westsylvania loop is the Victorian town of Bellefonte. This is a hop, skip and jump from Penn State University, and might be just the place for a nice, relaxing walk. The little city is historically significant because it was the first Pennsylvania town with its own court housed in a public building. As a result, it attracted the area’s best lawyers and politicians, becoming the state’s political center. It is the birthplace or childhood home of seven of Pennsylvania’s governors. Bellefonte was reputedly named by Talleyrand, who visited the site in 1795 and first saw the natural spring at the city’s south end. “La Belle Fonte!” he supposedly cried, and the spring is still the heart of this city of 7000. What is available in every tap free there, is bottled and shipped to us for a price as Evian or Dannon, among others. A local walking tour is called “Gingerbread and Iron” an apt description of Bellefonte’s authentic architecture and camera-ready streetscapes. A historical footnote is that Bellefonte is the home town of the Mills Brothers, and if they sang about a lazy river, they might have had in mind Stone Creek. It runs through Talleyrand Park here, and is filled not only with trout, but with an overflow of nostalgia.
So is the historical Bellefonte Rail Station and a main street that looks like a page torn from a history book. A few days spent in Westsylvania might inspire the visitor to ask, “How could they ever leave it?”