Designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, the Sondern-Adler House in Kansas City’s historic Roanoke neighborhood has had six owners since it was built in 1940. Constructed in Wright’s Usonian style, it was the architect’s first design in town.
Most owners added something to its original 900 square feet, including a lap pool in the 1950s and a kitchen expansion during Stern’s possession.
In 2024, third-generation owners of Lexington Plumbing in Kansas City bought the house. Unlike previous owners, they are trying to maintain the historical integrity of the Sondern-Adler House, rather than adding anything to it, according to The Kansas City Star reporter Eric Adler.
They’ve made major updates to electrical and plumbing in the house while communicating with the Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy in Chicago. While not yet on the National Register of Historic Places, the house does reside inside the Roanoke Historic District.
“Honestly, you can do what you want inside a house, even if they're in the historic district or in the register. But they seem to want to obviously keep the interior as it was, with certain changes, because they love what Frank Lloyd Wright has done,” Adler told KCUR’s Up To Date.
The house is joined by two other Wright-designed structures in the area: the Bott house in North Kansas City and the Community Christian Church near the Country Club Plaza. The Sondern-Adler House is a private residence and is not currently open to the public.
- Eric Adler, reporter at The Kansas City Star
