The Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian Automatic Theodore A. Pappas House in Town and Country—one of only two homes designed by the famous architect in the St. Louis area—is off the market.
This week, Michael Miner, founder and CEO of the Frank Lloyd Wright Revival Initiative and a Wright documentary filmmaker, announced that he has purchased the home in association with the nonprofit. The home was designed in 1955 and built from 1960–1964 for the Pappas family, Theodore and Bette Pappas, and three daughters. Cynthia and Charisse Pappas and Candace Pappas Simmons were the sellers of the home. (The other Wright-designed home, in Ebsworth Park, was the setting for last year’s Design STL Best Dressed shoot.)
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Miner plans a full restoration of the 2,310-square-foot home, which sits on 3.36 acres of land and is part of the National Register of Historic Places. Longer-term, Miner plans to turn the piece of history into an overnight rental facility, corporate retreat, education center, and house museum. In a release, Miner stated that “while I have mixed feelings about all Wright homes becoming house museums or overnight facilities, we are at present still losing Frank Lloyd Wright buildings, and if our model becomes the only way to prevent these buildings from being ‘Whitefished’ or ‘Ruised’ (yes, Ruised) and to protect them forever, then this is what must be done.”
Spring will bring the first phase of restoration, which is adding a new septic system and replacing the roof. Cosmetic restoration will begin after that.
In the release, Miner stated that he is in the process of searching for another Wright home, hoping to use one as a for-profit venture and another as nonprofit.
Here are five things to know about the design and construction of the historic home:
1. “Usonian” refers to the vision Wright had for middle-class homes across the country. According to Dwell, after Wright began designing affordable homes for the middle class in the 1930s, he envisioned homebuyers constructing their own houses out of concrete blocks. The entire Pappas House is made up of these blocks, according to the National Register of Historic Places. Twenty-five custom and handmade forms were designed to make up the various walls and corners, and before the molding stage, the concrete was tinted brick red. “To Wright,” the National Register of Historic Places states, “the concept of Usonia implied a civilization based on and committed to the machine. To run effectively, this machine-oriented society demands standardization.” Because all societies require some type of standardization, Wright believed, this wasn’t inherently bad. It only became shameful when the innate qualities of natural materials were ignored or used in ways that didn’t pay homage to them.
2. “Automatic” refers to the way the DIY way the home was intended to be constructed. According to the National Register of Historic Places, the home’s fabrication became known as “knit block” or “Wright textile block” because of the way the blocks are placed on top of and next to each other, and then knitted together with steel rods. The way Wright imagined the Usonian Automatic Unit working is that he could design a structure, manufacture the materials, and send the plan and blocks to the client as a DIY home kit. The National Register of Historic Places states that the Pappas House was constructed by its owners; Dwell states that Taliesin Associated Architects carried out the project.
3. All of the furniture in the home was also designed by Wright, according to the National Register of Historic Places. The freestanding furniture is linear and incorporates a U-shaped coffer design found elsewhere in the house. All of the wood in the interior and all of the furniture is a stained Philippine mahogany. According to the National Register of Historic Places, Wright hated the use of applied color; color should be in the material and not just surface-level. That’s why the concrete blocks used in the structure are dyed red.
4. The modern carport was believed to be an invention of Wright, according to the National Register of Historic Places. The Pappas House’s carport is designed to flow seamlessly with the design of the home.
5. Another hallmark of Wright designed-homes are de-emphasized entryways. The Pappas House offers a hallmark of this design, with the main entry and kitchen door asymmetrically placed on the south side of the home, and obscured under an overhang, according to the National Register of Historic Places.
