$2.4 million Kansas City mansion has a link to Hollywood

Buy the Bixby House in Country Club District for $2.4 million, and you’ll own a piece of history. The home at 6505 State Line Road is notable for its architectural pedigree and link to Hollywood.

Walter E. Bixby Sr., a successful insurance executive who helped establish Kansas City Life as one of the nation’s leading insurance firms, commissioned Edward Tanner to design and build the 9,000-square-foot mansion even though Tanner had almost no experience in modern design. He is best known as the architect of the Seville-inspired Country Club Plaza.

So Tanner called on Kem Weber, a designer and leading proponent of modernism in Los Angeles, for help designing and building the Bixby house. The German-born Weber had been practicing in California for more than two decades and had developed an American modern style that was casual and relaxed, precisely what Bixby and Tanner were looking for.

The home is also known as the location where scenes from the 1990 film “Mr. & Mrs. Bridge” were shot. Maggie Jacobs, the current owner, was an extra in the film. When she came to the set one day, she found its stars, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, sitting in the chauffeur’s quarters just off the foyer. After she and her husband, Leon Jacobs, bought the home in 1999, she christened the chauffeur’s quarters the “Hollywood room.”

The Kansas City Star profiled the home in its October 2015 special section on modern architecture, “20th Century Jewels.” The home had been put on the market two months earlier for $3.3 million.

The Bixby, which is snow white and ultra-modern, stands out from its traditional neighbors on State Line Road. Completed in 1935, it is sometimes mistaken for art deco style because it shares a lot of the same anti-traditional elements. But it’s more pared down than art deco and therefore known as international style. The exterior of the home has a low profile and contoured lines. Several portions of exterior wall are made of glass block to allow for natural light while providing privacy.

The doors between the vestibule and foyer have frosted glass panes made by Lalique. Glass balls on the staircase balusters leading to the second floor are hand-blown Steuben glass (though there have been reports that they’re Baccarat).

The home has a living room, library, dining room, kitchen, breakfast nook, 4 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, a chauffeur’s quarters and a maid’s quarters; an in-ground pool and nearby cabana equipped with a full kitchen and bar; the finished basement is an additional 5,000 square feet and includes a movie theater, billiard room and bar.

Scottie Broderick, of Re/Max, is the current listing agent. She says buyers will be paying for the history and architectural pedigree of the home as much as anything.

“It’s well-priced now,” Broderick adds, referring to the $900,000 price drop over the past 14 months, though she notes it’s not at all unusual for houses as big as the Bixby House to take awhile to sell.

“I have several houses that have been on the market for that amount of time,” she says. “People are scaling down. It doesn’t have as much to do with the house as it does with the size. And there aren’t as many contemporary buyers in Kansas City as there are people looking for traditional homes, like a Tudor.”

The home sits on 3 acres that are inhabited by at least one four-legged resident: a red fox.

“It has a history of always having a red fox on the property,” Broderick says. “Probably because they’ve had babies there over the years and just stayed. The first day I listed it, he ran across the yard.”

This story was originally published November 18, 2016 at 7:00 AM with the headline "$2.4 million Kansas City mansion has a link to Hollywood."