The Spanish Mission-style home was built in 1924 by Martiz & Young.
A LEGACY CONTINUES Written by Jessen O’Brien / Photography by Alise O’Brien
When you move into a century home, it can often feel as if you’re becoming a part of the house’s story. But if walls could talk, this Ladue home would say that its legacy has always been entangled with that of its current homeowners, who took up residence in 1991. “The house was built by my great aunt as a wedding gift for one of her children,” says one of the homeowners. When it went up for sale nearly 70 years later, “a lot of people came through; there was talk of tearing it down.” That would have been a shame. The 1924 Spanish Missionstyle home was designed by Raymond E. Maritz and W. Ridgley Young, a duo responsible for more than 160 of the city’s most significant residences, many of which are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Originally built in the shape of a cross -- allowing each room to maximize views of the surrounding landscape -- the home gained a wing in the 1990s to accommodate a growing family. This created a U-shaped courtyard where the old and new parts of the home met. Decades later, it would also create the perfect opportunity to establish a new entertaining space: a two-story glass conservatory that graciously blends indoor and outdoor living. While the conservatory is notably modern, it is thoughtfully designed to reference period appropriate architecture. “You can’t 14 slmag.net
ignore the past when working on century homes,” says Tom Wall, the project’s architect and owner of St. Louis firm Mitchell Wall Architecture and Design. “At the 1851 World’s Fair in London, there was a building called the Crystal Palace, an enormous wrought iron and glass structure, that we drew from for this contemporary addition.” The result is a “functional, flexible space that allows the [homeowners] to do so many things throughout the day,” says Rachael Dolan, Architectural and Interior Designer at Mitchell Wall. “There’s a bar for when they have parties and two tables that are normally in the space. There’s also a seating area they can move off to the side to allow for dancing or family dinners.” There were two motivators for the project: a new marriage had grown the family further, creating a need for extra living space, while at the same time the homeowner wanted to create a spot for “learning and sharing ideas to make the world a better place” where they could hold events. “At first we thought we might put a conservatory on the other side, where there’s a patio,” says the homeowner. “When Tom came over he walked around the house and said, ‘This is the perfect spot’ because it was the only place where the old house and the addition connected.”
