History
Uriah Spray Epperson (1861-1927) hired eccentric French architect Horace LaPierre to design the monumental house. Construction on the house began in 1919 and was completed in 1923 at a cost of $450,000. The four-story Tudor-Gothic structure contained 54 rooms, including six bathrooms, elevators, swimming pool, billiard room, barbershop, a custom organ, and a tunnel linking the east and west wings.
Epperson was born in Indiana on December 22, 1861, and he came to Kansas City at the age of eight. He was a banker, industrialist, and philanthropist who amassed significant wealth from insurance and meat-packing industries.
Uriah Epperson died in 1927, only four years after the completion of the house. The building was donated to the university in 1942 by Epperson's widow, and it was used as a men's dormitory until 1956. Epperson House is currently vacant and awaiting renovations.
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