The Great Wright Road Trip

Making its debut in 2021, the Great Wright Road Trip outlines a route through western New York and into Pennsylvania that explores nearly a dozen architectural masterpieces designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Start the journey in Buffalo, which has one of the largest clusters of Wright structures in the United States. The Martin House includes rows of art glass windows, original furnishings, a wisteria glass mosaic on the fireplace and a 100-foot pergola framing a reproduction of the “Winged Victory” statue in the Louvre. 

The Martin family also commissioned Wright to design their summer home, Graycliff, which looks out over Lake Erie and offers dramatic views of downtown Buffalo in the distance through its long banks of windows. 

Other Wright-designed structures in Buffalo include the Fontana Boathouse, the Blue Sky Mausoleum inside Forest Lawn cemetery and a filling station with a gleaming copper roof, observation deck and fireplaces that is now located inside the city’s Pierce-Arrow Museum of vintage cars.

Crossing over into Pennsylvania, the city of Erie’s Hagen History Center is home to a reconstruction of Wright's San Francisco office, complete with wooden finishes and towering windows that showcase a view similar to what Wright would have seen from his office’s second-story vantage point. The original office is presented in a building that was designed specifically for the purpose of housing the exhibit, and a 17-foot model of Wright’s proposed Butterfly Wing Bridge is also on display. 

Next, head south to Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands to see one of Wright’s most recognized structures, Fallingwater, a home cantilevered atop a waterfall. Tour the house or take a guided tour of the grounds. Nearby, Kentuck Knob is a smaller Wright home nestled into a hillside setting with sweeping views of the surrounding mountains and a sculpture garden that includes two pieces of the Berlin Wall.

About 45 minutes away in Acme, Polymath Park is a cluster of four homes, two of which Wright designed himself. One of them, Mäntylä, features a dramatic jutting roofline like the prow of a ship. You can rent these homes for the night or tour them during the day. Visitors can also opt to combine their tour with a meal in one of seven treehouses. For more information about following this route, go to visitbuffaloniagara.com/wright-road-trip.