Simply minutes away from Kansas City, Missouri’s Nation Membership Plaza, town’s upscale retail and eating hub, sits an iconic early twentieth century property designed by famend architect Louis Curtiss, now on the market for $5.49 million.
The seven-bedroom, seven-bath house that encompasses 14,986 sq. toes was accomplished in 1913 in Curtiss’ iconic fashion, which included each fashionable and classical architectural components. Curtiss’ inspiration from the Prairie College fashion is palpable, with the home’s architectural emphasis on horizontal traces. Lots of the house’s ornamental options additionally mirror Artwork Nouveau antecedents, and particularly, curving plant motifs current in a number of the house’s ornamental glass.
The property’s authentic nomination form within the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations additionally means that Curtiss was seemingly influenced by an rising curiosity in Japanese types and types that swept the West throughout the closing quarter of the nineteenth century, citing pergola-like constructions connected to the house’s east wing, amongst different options.
The home sits on 2.4 acres of land and features a indifferent four-car storage, in addition to an amply-sized brick patio that opens out to a fountain. A separate carriage home on the property has a full kitchen and laundry, in addition to two bedrooms and one rest room.
On the house’s exterior, a placing purple clay Spanish tiled roof and a grey limestone façade make it stand out from the plush vegetation surrounding it. Intricate thrives of stained glass additionally adorn a lot of the house’s home windows. Inside, the property boasts hardwood flooring and a number of fireplaces. Different notable options embody a wine cellar and a sport room within the basement.
“From the second you enter the grounds, you start an expertise of the senses, which can depart you awe struck and impressed,” the itemizing description reads. “World famend architect Louis Curtiss was purposeful, imaginative and boundless in creating this feast for the eyes.”
Curtiss is believed to have been born in Ontario, Canada, based on most sources, although some sources additionally state he might have been born in Pennsylvania. He lived in Kansas Metropolis for almost 4 many years and was referred to as the “Frank Lloyd Wright of Kansas Metropolis.” Though little is understood about his private {and professional} background, the Kansas Metropolis Public Library’s webpage on the architect states that “based on years of conjecture” he studied on the College of Toronto and the Ecole de Beaux-Arts in Paris. The location additionally notes that Curtiss “most popular an air of secrecy” and requested that every one his private paperwork be burned when he died.
The property at 1200 West 55th Street was initially commissioned to him by contractor and road railway magnate Bernard Corrigan, who died all of the sudden just some months earlier than development on the house was completed. The property was added to the Nationwide Register of Historic Locations in 1978, however lately was eliminated.
Andrew Bash and Shannon Vickers Rixson of Bash & Co. Sotheby’s Worldwide Realty are representing the itemizing.
