The park is named for the parents of Barney A. Ebsworth, a St. Louis businessman and investor who has a nationally known collection of 20th century art. The Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebsworth Park is one of only 5 houses in Missouri designed by Wright (born 1867, died 1959), who is generally recognized as America's greatest architect. It is a Usonian house, one of Wright's smaller houses for people of modest means, but it is also one of his most complex designs, based on two overlapping parallelograms of 60 and 120 degrees. Wright designed the furnishings, which still exist, including parallelogram beds and special studio equipment for the original owner, Russell Kraus, an artist and graphic designer. Kraus and his wife Ruth Goetz Kraus started building in 1951, moved in 1956, and continued work on the house until 1962. Ruth Kraus died in 1992 and Russell Kraus passed in 2009.
In 1996, Judy Bettendorf and others created a 501(c) 3 organization, later headed by Joanne Kohn, which raised $1.7 million to purchase the property and additional funds for the house's restoration and an education program. The Whitaker Foundation took the first step by donating $500,000. Barney A. Ebsworth gave $1 million. The Parks Department received the title on January 18, 2001. Responsibility for all improvements and programming of Ebsworth Park has been contracted to the non-profit 501(c) 3 organization.
The property was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1997 as the Russell and Ruth Goetz Kraus House.
