David and Kathy Dowell had been looking for a weekend home for many years but had never considered the tallgrass prairie region in the Flint Hills of eastern Kansas, less than two hours from their Kansas City, Missouri, home. Then, in 2004, they went there for the first time, to visit a client of David’s architecture firm, El Dorado. They were captivated. “It crept up on me and my wife,” says David of the landscape’s allure.

Only 4 percent of North America’s original 170 million acres of tallgrass prairie remains, much of it in Kansas, and land there rarely changes hands. But just a few months after their visit, the Dowells were able to buy a 12-acre homestead in Wabaunsee County, becoming only the third owners of the property since its still-existing stone cottage was built in 1893. Despite their years of searching, the couple waited another decade before starting construction. They spent long stretches staying in an Airstream on the site, studying the wind and sun patterns in various locations and ultimately deciding that an extension on the cottage was the best way to go. Even after moving in, in 2016, work continued as they learned how to live in the space.

“It was a study in patience,” Kathy says. “Let’s just spend time there, see how we like it, how we move through the house.”

As much as possible their choices were based on honoring the prairie. “What we did was try to think very carefully about how architecture can interact with landscape in a way that reveals the potency of it,” says David. Hiring mostly local craftspeople also helped. “I would talk to them and they would say things like, the wind has a particular flavor today. It helped us understand the place more,” he explains.

They also used local and reclaimed materials—limestone from nearby quarries and floorboards from an old building in Salina, for example. “It’s all about building the story of where,” says the architect.

Similar considerations went into selecting corrugated, galvanized steel for the pitched-roof addition. “It reflects the mood of the place, changing all the time, during the day, over the course of the season,” explains David. “It’s the moodiest building I’ve ever been around.”

Originally two stories and described by David as “depressing in its frugality,” the stone cottage now holds their bedroom, its tall gray plaster walls creating an almost cavernous depth. A new entryway connects it to the kitchen, living room, primary bathroom, and guest loft.

The Dowells collect art, and Kathy is director of curatorial affairs at the Mid-America Arts Alliance, but except for a David Hilliard photograph in the kitchen, they didn’t hang anything for more than a year after they moved in. “How many times have you walked into a space that feels like everything was planned at once and doesn’t have a real personality?” Kathy asks. “I wanted to explore the idea that you don’t have to start with everything.”

David’s patience has also been rewarded. After taking years to make up his mind about how and where to live on the property, he is proud that they were able to keep the little stone cottage. “It’s the sustainability argument—that old house will last,” he says. “Tearing down is the worst thing in the world.”

Wabaunsee Roots

The History of a Prairie Home

1450–1700: Up to 20,000 of the Wichita people settle in the “lost city” of Etzanoa, about 200 miles south of the homestead.

1800s: At some point after the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, a wood-frame cabin is built on the site.

1893: The 1862 Homestead Act allows the Buttenhof family to be the first to “own” the property, 160 acres known as a Quarter Section. In 1893, they build the limestone house where the wood-frame structure once stood.

1800–1930: The majority of the tallgrass prairie is destroyed by settlers and transformed into farmland.

2003: New owners buy the Buttenhof property and partition 12 acres from the parcel; original structures remaining on the property include the stone house, a wood barn, a stone chicken coop, and a stone stable.

2004: David and Kathy Dowell buy the 12 acres, which they visit for 10 years while planning their weekend home.

2014: Renovation and construction begin.

2016: David and Kathy move in and continue renovation on the property.

Related Reading: A Minimalist Retreat Rises From Old Stone Walls in Hudson Valley

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: David Dowell, El Dorado Inc. / @eldoradoinc

General contracting: Don Hendricks

Structural engineering: Genesis Structures

Steel fabrication: El Dorado Inc.

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