by After a couple of sites with somewhat dubious Frank Lloyd Wright claims, we finally got to tour the genuine article. The Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park in Kirkwood, Missouri, (just West of St. Louis), was designed by the master architect Wright himself.
The 1,900 square-foot-home is situated on more than 10 acres, and was built for Russell and Ruth Kraus beginning in 1951.
It is one of Wrights famous “Usonian” designs, meant to be beautiful, practical and affordable, built primarily of brick and red cypress.
The home design incorporates parallelograms, and once you know to look for them you see them everywhere. Then you enter the master bedroom and see the couple’s bed is a parallelogram, and it’s so shocking you definitely can’t miss it.
The only right angles in the home are in the bathroom! Custom bricks had to be made for the build, and several contractors passed on the project as being too complicated.
One of the bathrooms had a drawer pulled out — you guessed it, it was in the shape of a parallelogram!
The home has a lovely flow to it. It features the “compress and release” architectural feature that Wright liked to employ, where you enter a somewhat cramped area at the front door, only for the home to open up into an open living area with large windows that make it even brighter and bigger.
Russell Kraus was primarily a mosaic and stained-glass artist, while Ruth was an attorney (in the 1940s! Go Ruth!). They married in 1949, and not long after they reached out to Wright to have their home built. They were actively involved in the project, procuring supplies and consulting Wright on every decision. Apparently they were pretty thrilled with the results.
We shall never cease to be grateful that our lives have been touched by his genius.
Russell Kraus
We love our house, Mr. Wright. Love it passionately and intensely. To us it is not inanimate brick, mortar, steel, and wood. To us it is a personality. A thing that lives and breathes.
Ruth Kraus
The Krauses didn’t move in until 1956, but the Wright furniture still took a few more years to arrive, and the house was never “formally” completed (so typically Frank Lloyd Wright!).
They lived in the home until Ruth’s death in 1992.
Russell knew they wanted the house to be preserved after his death, and as the couple had no children, a non-profit was established. The house and all of its furnishings were transferred, with the added benefit of being able to ask Russell lots of questions about their experience while he was still alive.
