The Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park

The Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park Usonian masterwork by Frank Lloyd Wright (1951) for Russell and Ruth Kraus, a National Historic Landmark in Kirkwood, MO.
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Guided tours, events & preservation of an architectural treasure.

We love taking pictures of guests at the house so they can have a memory of their time at the house. This was a private...
09/16/2026

We love taking pictures of guests at the house so they can have a memory of their time at the house. This was a private tour for a family from Madrid.

09/15/2026

The FLWHEP plays hide-and-seek with its persimmon trees. Usonian design 101: let the landscape win.

09/10/2026

Seventy-five years ago, this hillside held nothing but a set of drawings. Frank Lloyd Wright's vision for the Kraus House — low, horizontal, rooted into the land rather than set on top of it — asked the site to shape the building, not the other way around.

The house is still doing exactly what it was designed to do.


St. Louis County Parks and Recreation

09/04/2026

For 75 years, the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park has stood not because a house of this design simply endures, but because people have shown up for it — generation after generation, one project at a time.

You'll see workmen on the roof in this video, continuing the cedar shingle work that returned the house to Wright's original vision. But the roof is only the most visible chapter. Look closer, over 75 years, and you'll find the same devotion in the mortar repointing the walls, the hands restoring the textiles, the conservators treating the wood, the volunteers cataloguing archives, the donors who funded it all without asking for their names on a plaque.

This is what preservation actually looks like: not a single grand gesture, but thousands of small, exacting acts of labor, sustained across three generations, so that this house could remain part of our community's architectural legacy — not as a relic, but as a living structure people can still walk through and understand.

To everyone who has held a tool, written a check, or given a Saturday to this house over the last 75 years: this is your house too.

Congratulations to Ian Chou on a stellar first tour at the Frank Lloyd Wright House at Ebsworth Park! Ian brought deep d...
09/04/2026

Congratulations to Ian Chou on a stellar first tour at the Frank Lloyd Wright House at Ebsworth Park! Ian brought deep dedication to the house’s themes and unmistakable personal passion to every stop on the tour.

Fitting timing, too — this first day of the Labor Day weekend, we’re grateful for our volunteer docents, who welcome roughly 5,000 visitors to the house each year.

Thank you, Ian, and to all our docents who share this Usonian landmark with the world.

09/03/2026

Wright believed a house should grow from its site — and its roof was central to that philosophy. After over a year of planning and work, the Kraus House’s cedar roof with modified Boston hip shingles, six custom skylights, and other defining elements is complete.

Thank you to our dedicated team -
🏛️ Architect — Harboe Architects
🔨 General Contractor — McMillan Construction Group
🪵 Cedar-Shingle Roof — Old World Roofing
🏗️ Flat-Roof Contractor — Kirberg Company
🪟 Skylights — Glazing Vision
🎨 Painting & Finishing — Koch Bros Decorating
🧱 Masonry — Harlan Company
⚒️ Sheet Metal — Hyde Sheet Metal
🪚 Carpentry — Skillcraft Carpentry

And to St. Louis County Parks and Recreation for their partnership on this project and on preservation of the FLWHEP for the last 25 years.

(Construction) hats off also to donors, members, and grant partners who saw the value in getting this done Wright.

Enjoy this drone video which takes you from the project’s start to finish. Cheers to Justin, from STL From Above, for the drone footage.

Part 2: The AnswerFive days ago, we shared the letter that started it all — Russell Kraus, moved by a *House Beautiful* ...
08/30/2026

Part 2: The Answer

Five days ago, we shared the letter that started it all — Russell Kraus, moved by a *House Beautiful* article titled "The Love Affair of a Man and his House," writing to Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin with a single consuming passion: “I have a consuming passion to live in a house designed by you."

On August 30, 1948, Wright's reply arrived. No fanfare, no lengthy explanation — just his characteristic directness:

“Dear Russell Kraus: You should have the nice little house. Condense your needs, comply with the enclosed sheet and we will make you a plan."

Sincerely yours, Frank Lloyd Wright

Five sentences. One decision. And a promise that would give Missouri its first Frank Lloyd Wright-designed residence.

That promise — from a man who dared to ask, to an architect willing to answer — is the reason the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park stands today. This year we mark 75 years since groundbreaking and 25 years as a public treasure, still welcoming visitors who walk the same halls Russell once only dreamed of.

Thank you, Russell Kraus, for writing that letter. And thank you, Mr. Wright, for saying yes.

Celebrate this legacy with us at Preserving What's Wright, September 13.

Address

120 North Ballas Road
St. Louis, MO
63122

Telephone

+13148228359

Website

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