Construction
Costs escalated owing to difficulties developed during construction, which was supervised by Frank Lloyd Wright's son Lloyd Wright. The owners took over after the superstructure reached the windows and carried out various changes, deviating from Wright's original design.
The house consists of two buildings, the main house and a smaller chauffeur's apartment/garage, separated by a paved courtyard. Unlike the vertical orientation of the other three block houses, the Ennis House has a long horizontal loggia spine on the northern side, connecting public and private rooms to the south, and is very large at 10,000 sq ft (930 m2). The kitchen, pantry, guestroom, dining room, living room, master bathroom and bedroom, upper terrace, and second bathroom and bedroom are at the eastern and lower end of the main building.
In 1940 the house was sold to media personality John Nesbitt, who had it altered by Wright, adding a pool on the north terrace, a billiard room on the ground floor, and a heating system.
Although originally and currently known as the Ennis House, the building was long known as the Ennis-Brown House. This became its name in 1980 when it was renamed in appreciation of its donation to the Trust for Preservation of Cultural Heritage by Augustus O. Brown, the eighth owner from 1968–1980. In August 2005, the house was returned to its original name, and the Trust for Preservation of Cultural Heritage was renamed the Ennis House Foundation.
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