Park Number: 056
Park Address: 120 North Ballas Road, Kirkwood 63122
Park Location: East side of Ballas, first driveway south of Dougherty Ferry Road
One block east of I-270 Dougherty Ferry exit
Park Size: 10.46 acres
Local Municipality: Kirkwood Police, 314-984-5984

Nestled in grassy fields on 10.5 acres in the Sugar Creek area of Kirkwood, Missouri, is a unique and significant residence designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, widely recognized as the greatest American architect of the 20th century. This 1,900 square foot residence, built for Russell and Ruth Kraus, was the architect’s first building in the St. Louis area and is one of only five Wright designs in Missouri. It is an excellent example of Wright’s democratic vision, intended to provide middle class Americans with beautiful architecture at an affordable cost. The home is notable not only for its architectural integrity but for retaining all of its original Wright-designed furnishings and fabrics. The home is listed on the National Register of Historic Places because of its significance in American architecture.

OUR VISION

The Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park, a nonprofit organization, has purchased and is preserving the house and its surrounding property as an architectural and design museum, educational center and public park. This new addition to the St. Louis County Park system has been named Ebsworth Park due to a generous donation by Barney Ebsworth in memory of his parents, Alec W. and Bernice W. Ebsworth.

The house will be restored to its original condition. As part of the restoration process, the home’s exterior brick walls will be repaired, and the interior surfaces of wood, tile and concrete will be refurbished. In addition, the sloping lawn and dense woods will be improved consistent with Wright’s architectural and aesthetic intentions.

The Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park will manage the house and grounds in cooperation with the St. Louis County Department of Parks and Recreation, which will maintain the grounds. The house will serve as the focal point for educational activities relating to the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and to modern architecture and design in general. The construction of a visitors/educational center in accordance with Wright’s design principles is under consideration.

During restoration, the house will be shown by appointment to Friends of the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park. Following restoration, the house will be open to the public for guided tours at a reasonable fee.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Join us in our Campaign to Preserve a Treasure by becoming a Friend of the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park. Your support will help develop the residence and surrounding landscape, and create a significant new design education center and public park for the St. Louis region.

For more information call 314-822-8FLW (8359).

PARK HISTORY

The Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park is a Usonian house, one of Wright's smaller houses for people of modest means, but it is also one of his most complex designs, based on two overlapping parallelograms of 60 and 120 degrees. Wright, who lived from 1867 to 1959, designed the furnishings, which all survive, including parallelogram beds and special studio equipment for the original owner, Russell Kraus, an artist and graphic designer. Kraus and his wife Ruth Goetz Kraus started building in 1951, moved in January 1, 1956, and continued work on the house until 1962. Ruth died in 1992.

In 1993 when Russell Kraus was ready to sell his Frank Lloyd Wright house, he contacted Judith Bettendorf, a St. Louis artist and interior designer, who had expressed a prior interest in buying the house. After seeing the house, Judith realized it was too small for her family, but she offered to help find a way to preserve it. She contacted her friend, Bob Hall, who had been appointed Director of the St. Louis County Department of Parks and Recreation, to see if the County could buy the house and turn the land into a park. The County declined for financial reasons, but Bob Hall remained an active participant, hoping the County could eventually acquire it.

In September 1995, Judith and others created a 501(c)3 non-profit organization to purchase and restore the house and develop the land as a park. In 1997, Judith moved to Florida, and board member, Joanne Kohn, a St. Louis arts leader, became chairman. The first major gift towards the purchase price was a $500,000 pledge by the Whitaker Foundation in 1999. Shortly afterward, Barney Ebsworth, a St. Louis businessman with an internationally known collection of 20th century American art, pledged $1 million. The Gateway Foundation subsequently pledged money for restoration costs.

The non-profit organization purchased the house and land from Mr. Kraus for $1.7 million and donated the house and land to St. Louis County on January 18, 2001. The County leased both the house and land back to the non-profit organization to manage. Architect John Eifler, of Eifler & Associates in Chicago, is developing a master plan for the restoration of the house, and with Ted Wolff, a landscape architect from Chicago, is developing a site plan for the park.

For more information visit http://www.ebsworthpark.org/