I.N. and Bernardine Hagan were the third-generation owners of the Hagan Ice Cream Company, based in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. In the early 1950s, the Hagans acquired 80 acres of land in the tiny town of Chalk Hill. High up in the Laurel Highlands, they planned to build a retreat from the city.
"The house and its grounds exist because we had a dream... Did we keep within our budget? No."
- Bernardine Hagan
Inspired by visits to their friends' nearby home Fallingwater, the Hagans fell in love with Wright's architecture and commissioned a home of their own. After a year-long design process, construction of Kentuck Knob began in 1954 and was completed by summer 1956 — with the couple moving in on their 26th wedding anniversary. It remained their full-time home for nearly thirty years, until Mr. Hagan's illness prompted their return to Uniontown in the mid-1980s.