The exterior of the home, Friday, March 15, 2019. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
Hillary Levin
The entry as seen from the living room, Friday, March 15, 2019. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
Hillary Levin
Slips of paper marking the grandchildren's names and their heights against a wall have remained. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
Hillary Levin
The kitchen has all of the original appliances to the home, completed in 1964. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
Hillary Levin
The family room, with its original mahogany furniture designed by Wright, and the wall of windows, Friday, March 15, 2019. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
Hillary Levin
The furnishings in the living room/dining room remain, Friday, March 15, 2019, as they were originally in the home, completed in 1964. Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
Hillary Levin
The terra cotta-lined concrete blocks that form the walls and ceiling show wear, Friday, March 15, 2019. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
Hillary Levin
The kitchen has all of the original appliances to the home, completed in 1964. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
Hillary Levin
The kitchen has all of the original appliances to the home, completed in 1964. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
Hillary Levin
The home is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
Hillary Levin
The furnishings in the living room/dining room remain, Friday, March 15, 2019, as they were originally in the home, completed in 1964. Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
Hillary Levin
The narrow hallway to the bedrooms has storage on one side and the terra cotta-lined concrete blocks on the other, photographed Friday, March 15, 2019. the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
Hillary Levin
The exterior of the home, Friday, March 15, 2019. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
Hillary Levin
A drawing of the home is propped on a shelf above the sofa in the living room, Friday, March 15, 2019. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
Hillary Levin
Ted and Bette Pappas in the living room of their Frank Lloyd Wright house off Mason Ridge Road in 1985.
Post-Dispatch file
In a 2000 photo, Bette and Ted Pappas speak to reporters about their lives and raising children in their home, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The house in Town and Country and is made of concrete, with stark lines and lots of windows. Post-Dispatch file photo
The Pappas daughters would like others to share in their parents’ dream.
Ted and Bette Pappas wanted to build a home by iconic architect Frank Lloyd Wright; they did that more than 50 years ago in Town and Country. It’s one of just two Wright homes in the area.
And now a new nonprofit foundation wants to raise enough money to buy and restore the house and open it to the public as a museum.
“While you’re here, if you can take away a sense of peace, the aesthetic of the place, a sense of what a house can do,” said their daughter, Candace Simmons of Foristell, as she gave a tour of the house last week. “You never know where that knowledge is going to go.”
The Frank Lloyd Wright Pappas House Foundation, led by Town and Country Alderman Richard “Skip” Mange and supported by residents and historical activists, recently formed with the goal of raising about $2 million to buy and refurbish the house. So far, there’s about $400 in the bank.
The house went on the market in spring 2018, after owner Bette Pappas died at age 91. She and her husband, Ted, who died in 2004, had the home designed by Wright and built much of it themselves. It sits on a little more than 3 acres at Mason Road and Interstate 64 (Highway 40).
The Pappas’ three grown daughters want to preserve the house but have struggled to find a buyer. They’re still open to offers but can’t afford to hold onto it for more than a couple of years. The current asking price is $1.45 million.
They fear a developer will buy it and knock it down for the land. They’d love for it to become a house museum, much like the Ebsworth Park house in Kirkwood.
“That was my mom’s greatest wish. And my dad. They would love that. They want it to be a public space. That is what we want,” said Cynthia Pappas, who has continued to live in the house after caring for her ailing mother. Her twin, Charisse, lives in Jefferson City. A brother, Theodore Jr., died in 2017.
While the city of Town and Country supports the efforts to preserve the house, they’re not committed to providing funding, said Mange.
Mange said he has known the family for several years. The city had turned down several offers from Ted and Bette Pappas to buy it. But Mange and city officials stayed in touch with the family and began talking about the foundation last year.
The Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park is the only other Wright-designed home in the area. That home, built for Russell and Ruth Kraus, was bought by a private foundation, donated to St. Louis County, and leased back to the foundation by the county.
“We would like to see a similar type of arrangement with Town and Country, but operated and maintained by the foundation,” Mange said.
Mange said that supporters of both the Kraus house and the Pappas house see marketing possibilities for tourism, with Wright enthusiasts able to tour both houses. It took six years to raise the $1.7 million needed to buy the Kraus house, Mange points out.
Barney and Pam Ebsworth of St. Louis gave $1 million toward the purchase of the Kraus property. Another major grant was $500,000 from the Whitaker Foundation of St. Louis.
Mange hopes publicity about the Pappas house will open the doors to donations and grants.
Other founding members of the Pappas foundation are Dennis Bolazina, who serves on Town and Country’s planning commission; Todd Abrams, a member of the city’s conservation commission; and Bill Schawacker, a member of the city’s public art commission. Mange is a past mayor of Town and Country and past member of the St. Louis County Council.
A recent appraisal shows the house is structurally sound, but it needs work, like a typical house of that age. Some blocks of a porch retaining wall need to be repaired and replaced, some upholstery on the Wright-designed furnishings is worn, and it would need an improved driveway and parking area if it became an attraction.
The house was completed in 1964 and took four years to build. It’s what’s known as a Usonian Automatic home, and is built of precast, reinforced concrete bricks. The poured concrete floor is Wright’s trademark Cherokee red, and it’s filled with open wood shelving and closed storage.
“Even though it’s made of concrete blocks, you get a warm feeling,” Simmons said.
Shells, rocks and geodes from Bette Pappas’ nature collection still sit on the shelves.
Windows and patio doors throughout the house — there are more than 300 glass insets in the building — offer views of the pine trees Ted Pappas planted. The living and dining room in the main part of the house offers an open fireplace and a built-in couch big enough to seat at least seven people.
The Philippine mahogany dining table expands with the help of a matching smaller table for larger gatherings. A bar and serving area separate the dining area from the light-filled kitchen.
A narrow hallway lined with built-in wooden storage cabinets leads to four bedrooms and two bathrooms. Simmons remembers listening to the soothing sounds of the rain pouring from the scuppers, or pipes in the roof. The roof is flat and does not have gutters.
After his visits to St. Louis in 1939 and 1949 (where he didn't have much nice to say about architecture and our buildings downtown) we will never forget him.
In the other end of a house in a light-filled living room, the family would sit around a low, round table to do homework and play cards.
Simmons says that their family is close, and she gives much of the credit to the house. “We didn’t grow up in isolation, and that’s a testament to the house,” she said. “You have to alter your behavior to live in the house. And that can be a good thing. You appreciate nature, and you’re more social.”
The Pappas daughters have one request: If the house does become an attraction, they would like two or three days a year to come back and enjoy it, perhaps celebrate Thanksgiving there as they did for so many years.
“It’s still our parents’ house. A lot of memories are attached here,” she said. “We just want someone to enjoy it and get the same sense of peace and comfort we did. And just get an appreciation for what a house can be without being just four walls.”
For more about the Frank Lloyd Wright Pappas House Foundation, visit flwpappashouse.org.
It's a chance to tour a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and a chance to donate money to help in its preservation.
The exterior of the home, Friday, March 15, 2019. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
The entry as seen from the living room, Friday, March 15, 2019. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
Slips of paper marking the grandchildren's names and their heights against a wall have remained. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
The kitchen has all of the original appliances to the home, completed in 1964. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
The family room, with its original mahogany furniture designed by Wright, and the wall of windows, Friday, March 15, 2019. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
The furnishings in the living room/dining room remain, Friday, March 15, 2019, as they were originally in the home, completed in 1964. Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
The living room fireplace, Friday, March 15, 2019. Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
The terra cotta-lined concrete blocks that form the walls and ceiling show wear, Friday, March 15, 2019. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
The kitchen has all of the original appliances to the home, completed in 1964. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
The kitchen has all of the original appliances to the home, completed in 1964. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
The home is on the National Register of Historic Places. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
The furnishings in the living room/dining room remain, Friday, March 15, 2019, as they were originally in the home, completed in 1964. Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
The narrow hallway to the bedrooms has storage on one side and the terra cotta-lined concrete blocks on the other, photographed Friday, March 15, 2019. the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
The exterior of the home, Friday, March 15, 2019. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
A drawing of the home is propped on a shelf above the sofa in the living room, Friday, March 15, 2019. The Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
The furnishings in the living room/dining room remain, Friday, March 15, 2019, as they were originally in the home, completed in 1964. Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home in Town & Country has been owned only by the Pappas family. A foundation now hopes to raise money to refurbish it and turn it into a museum. Photo by Hillary Levin, hlevin@post-dispatch.com.
In a 2000 photo, Bette and Ted Pappas speak to reporters about their lives and raising children in their home, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The house in Town and Country and is made of concrete, with stark lines and lots of windows. Post-Dispatch file photo