fruit

An architectural jewel

Although the building has had a variety of academic inhabitants through the decades, including the Conservatory of Music and Dance, the Henry W. Bloch School of Management and most recently the Department of Architecture, Urban Planning + Design (AUP+D), it was built to be a home. And even though they had no children of their own, the Eppersons’ love for the community and the arts meant the home was always alive with activity. They even had the home’s architect, Horace LaPierre, include a stage and the organ balcony in the home’s living room for performances, galas and balls.

stair
Detail of the home’s main staircase

Epperson House features several architectural styles that span centuries, lending it an architectural elegance that would otherwise take time to evolve. According to the Historic Kansas City Foundation, LaPierre designed the home to symbolize generations of additions to an ancestral British home. The house represents Tudor-Gothic, Elizabethan and Early Jacobean styles. The walnut dining room is Georgian, with a bountiful harvest of fruit and vegetables cast in the crown molding, and rich oak paneling makes the spacious living room feel warm and comforting.

“The house is a real jewel in Kansas City,” says Joy Swallow, chair of AUP+D. “It speaks to our history and culture in the Midwest.” AUP+D called Epperson its home from 1988 until the department relocated to the renovated Katz Hall in 2010. The architecture students loved the house, and they were disappointed to learn about the move to Katz. “It felt like home,” she says.

With age comes problems

While Swallow says Epperson House has a life of its own, she didn’t always consider that a good thing—people would forget her department was there. People immediately recognize the Bloch School of Management when they see the Bloch building, but AUP+D was often overshadowed by the house because of its history and the legends that surround it.

The home’s legendary past may be charming, but it’s also filled with problems. The AUP+D faculty, staff and students dealt with difficulties in the house many times, including during the department’s first public event. The weekend before school started, the department invited more than 100 students and parents to attend.

A torrential storm hit, and rain came in the building from every direction. Then the electricity went out. “Students mopped up water, and they were coming at me like they were on a ship that was going down,” Swallow says. “They ran all over the house trying to pull things out of the water that was coming in.”

That was the water. Then there was fire. While a technician was updating the home’s HVAC system, he set the insulation in the attic on fire. Fortunately, the sprinkler system worked and saved the home. Unfortunately, the sprinkler system’s success caused massive amounts of water to flow from floor to floor, damaging everything in its wake.

What the future holds

Now that Epperson House doesn’t have any occupants, the home’s fans wonder what will happen to it next. Assistant Vice Chancellor of Campus Facilities Management Bob Simmons gives his assurances that the university is protecting the building. “We’re running the systems at a minimum level, we do walk-throughs to make sure there aren’t any maintenance issues, and we continue to protect the building’s skin at a basic level,” he says.

However, Simmons says the university will not move any academic or administrative functions into Epperson House until accessibility issues are addressed. The inability to completely comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is one of the reasons the AUP+D had to relocate to Katz Hall. “You can’t walk more than 10 steps in that building without hitting a couple of stairs,” Simmons says. The estimated cost to bring the house up to ADA standards and make it habitable is between $8 million and $10 million.

The university made emergency repairs to stop the worst of the water infiltration, but Simmons says the house is solid. “Structurally, it’s in fine shape,” he says. “But it has lots of building skin issues. Many of the windows are original to the house and still have the original leaded glass panes, and they leak air like a sieve.”

Despite that, Simmons has a message for UMKC’s friends and neighbors who fear for the future of Epperson House: The university is properly caring for it. He believes the house is an opportunity waiting for the right investor and the right use. “The university is always open to discussions around that opportunity,” he says. Eventually, the right person will fall in love with Epperson House and restore it to a state befitting a neighborhood jewel.

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