Southmoreland is the midtown Kansas City, Missouri neighborhood that holds the city’s principal cultural corridor — the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Kansas City Art Institute — roughly between 39th Street and Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard, and between Main Street and Gillham / Rockhill Roads.12 Conceived in the late nineteenth century as a mansion district of the Rockhill development by William Rockhill Nelson and August Meyer, it is today a mix of Colonial Revival and Arts-and-Crafts houses, colonnade apartments, galleries, and institutional lawns that slope toward Brush Creek and the Country Club Plaza.21

Boundaries

The Southmoreland Neighborhood Association describes the neighborhood as spanning 39th Street south to 47th Street / Cleaver II Boulevard, and Main Street east to Gillham and Rockhill Roads.1 Wikipedia’s neighborhood article matches that box: 39th on the north (Hanover Place and Central Hyde Park), Rockhill and Gillham on the east (South Hyde Park), Cleaver on the south (Plaza / Park Central), and Main on the west (Plaza Westport and Old Westport).2

The neighborhood is not the same as South Plaza (south of the Plaza retail district) or as the full Country Club Plaza commercial district, though residents and visitors treat the museum corridor, Plaza, and South Plaza as one continuous midtown geography.

History

Rockhill mansion district

The Southmoreland section of the Rockhill District was conceived in the late nineteenth century by Kansas City Star publisher and developer William Rockhill Nelson and mining magnate August Meyer as Kansas City’s neighborhood of palatial houses.2 The ground was platted as South Moreland Addition by W.B. Clark; Nelson acquired land in the area and framed the district with his baronial mansion Oak Hall, while Meyer’s palace Marburg stood on Warwick Boulevard.2

Nelson and Meyer’s plan extended City Beautiful ideas into the residential landscape: naturalistic landscaping, open parkland, native stone fencing, and curved roadways lined with elms, arranged around a natural ravine and intermittent brook.2 Secondary accounts attribute intended landscaping kinship to the Olmsted–Vaux tradition of Central Park and Riverside Park; the page records that as a secondary claim rather than a primary surveyor’s contract. for a primary Olmsted/Vaux commission document specific to Southmoreland.

Twentieth century

In the early twentieth century a streetcar line from downtown reached the neighborhood; larger mansions began converting to apartments as working-class families moved in.2 The architectural stock that remains is an eclectic mix of Colonial Revival, Arts and Crafts, and colonnade luxury apartments, many with native limestone accents.2 In 2009, This Old House listed Southmoreland among its “Best Old House Neighborhoods” editor’s picks for the Midwest.3

The Southmoreland Neighborhood Association was established in 1973.1 Within the broader neighborhood lies the Southmoreland Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places.1 for the NRHP reference number and listing date (association site asserts listing; nomination form not opened this pass).

Streetcar and Main Street

Since the Main Street extension of the KC Streetcar (Union Station toward UMKC) was completed, the western edge of Southmoreland has seen renewed real-estate interest along Main.24

Institutions and character

Southmoreland is the residential and campus frame for:

  • nelson-atkins — museum campus and south lawn toward Brush Creek
  • kemper-museum — contemporary art museum (infobox and prior vault notes place it in Southmoreland, not Volker)
  • kansas-city-art-institute — art college on Warwick / campus edge
  • galleries, studios, and shops beyond the large institutions2

Sources

See also

Footnotes

  1. Southmoreland Neighborhood Association — “About Us.” — asserts: boundaries 39th south to 47th/Cleaver, Main east to Gillham and Rockhill; developed around the turn of the 20th century; SNA established 1973; Southmoreland Historic District listed on the National Register. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. Wikipedia — “Southmoreland.” — asserts: hosts Nelson-Atkins, Kemper, KCAI; boundary streets as above; late-19th-c Rockhill mansion district of Nelson and Meyer; South Moreland Addition (W.B. Clark); Oak Hall and Marburg; City Beautiful landscaping; streetcar-era apartment conversion; This Old House 2009 pick; streetcar-extension development along Main. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  3. This Old House — “Best Old House Neighborhoods 2009: The Midwest.” — asserts: Southmoreland among 2009 Midwest editor’s picks. ↩

  4. Thomas Friestad, “Track to the future,” Kansas City Business Journal, Dec. 3–4, 2020 — asserts: development interest tied to streetcar extension toward UMKC. ↩

See also

Categories
  • Concept
  • Neighborhood
  • Gilded Age
  • Modern
  • Architecture

On the record — ks.city/wiki/neighborhoods/southmoreland · last revised 2026-08-11