The Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park, also known as the Kraus House, is located just outside Saint Louis in Kirkwood, Missouri. It’s a Wright Usonian house — one of his last, in fact. Wright’s high concept here is that the floorplan/layout of the house is a parallelogram with 120° and 60° angles. The house was designed for Russell and Ruth Goetz Kraus. The Krauses were just a middle class couple, so throughout they often had to postpone parts of the construction until they had the money to pay for them. Wright came up with the initial design in 1950, and construction continued on & off until 1960 and was never formally completed.
The house sits midway up a grassy hill that reaches the woods just below. The low profile and sharp angles on the exterior give the house a defensive feel, like a Renaissance bastion in Italy. The drive leads up to a car port, and under this structure you’ll find the front door, hidden from further out in the drive by triangular brickwork jutting out from the wall.
Inside you’ll find the Cherokee red flooring with underground heating, the fireplace probably a bit larger than practical, and the Tidewater Red Cypress for the ceiling & woodwork that are all typical of a Wright Usonian house. It does make for a warn, welcoming, and comfy interior. The furniture and the stained glass were all made by Russell Kraus, who was a stained glass and mosaic artist, following Frank Lloyd Wright plans.
In the main area, the parallelogram stays relatively open, so it feels like an open, normal, and practical space. But man, once you get to the bedrooms the 60° corners make it tight & uncomfortable. The bedrooms are the part of the house that follow Wright’s idea to its impractical conclusion. The beds in both are custom, to Wright’s design, with one being the thematic parallelogram shaped, and the other a hexagon. I mean, c’mon. But kudos to the Krauses for sticking with the program, they actually slept in them for the 40 years they lived there.
Carl was our docent guide, and he was great and very spry for his age. Photography is allowed both inside and outside & out. Book a tour through the link below.
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