Uriah Spray Epperson was a banker, industrialist, and philanthropist who amassed significant wealth from insurance and meat-packing industries.
He 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.