Southmoreland

Southmoreland is bounded by 39th Street to the north, Rockhill and Gillham to the east, Emanuel Cleaver II Boulevard to the south, and Main Street to the west. Inside those four lines sit the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, the Kansas City Art Institute, and Southmoreland Park — the great lawn with the shuttlecocks on it, land donated by the Nelsons in 1891.

The number

Walk Score 85. Kansas City, Missouri as a whole scores 35 — "car-dependent, most errands require a car." Southmoreland is 85, the highest score in this dossier set, and that gap is the defining feature of the place.

It is a real 85. From the middle of the neighborhood you can reach two museums on foot — the Nelson-Atkins, whose general admission is always free, and the Kemper, free since it opened in 1994 — plus an art college, a park, a grocery, and the Plaza's restaurants. Since October 24, 2025, there is also a fare-free KC Streetcar stop in the Art Museum District on the Main Street extension: 3.5 miles, 16 stops, running to Union Station, the Crossroads, the River Market and the ballpark. Transit Score is 42, Bike Score 62. Free-flow drive times: Plaza 4 minutes, downtown 9, Overland Park 20, KCI 37.

The housing stock

Nelson and August Meyer laid this district out in the 1890s for mansions, and mansions got built: Colonial Revival, Arts & Crafts, Colonnade apartment buildings, much of it in native limestone. When the streetcar arrived in the early 1900s, many of the largest houses were subdivided into apartments.

They are still apartments. This is the single most important thing to understand before you start looking: the for-sale market here is a handful of condos, the occasional intact mansion, and the occasional third of one. Inventory stands at 20 listings. If your search is for a detached house with a yard, be prepared for a long wait and a large number.

And the stock is old. Late-19th and early-20th-century construction means original plaster, historic wood windows, cast-iron waste stacks, clay sewer laterals, and knob-and-tube in whatever never got renovated. Exterior work may be subject to historic review. Budget accordingly.

The costs, and a number you must read carefully

Zillow's mid-tier home-value index for Southmoreland was $217,949 in May 2026, essentially flat at +0.1% year over year. Do not read that as "a house here costs $218,000." It is an index, not a closed-sale median, and in a neighborhood whose for-sale stock is mostly condos, the mid tier is a condo. The detached houses that survive are large historic properties and they do not trade anywhere near that figure.

On a condo, the dues are the line item nobody underwrites. Get the monthly amount, the reserve study, and the special-assessment history before you go under contract.

Then the taxes: Jackson County, Kansas City, Missouri, inside Kansas City Public Schools — a 19% assessment ratio against 83.882 mills produces a statutory 1.594% of market value. Add the KCMO 1% earnings tax, which a resident owes on all wages wherever earned, including wages earned in Kansas.

Parking is tight, and tighter on any night the Nelson has an opening, on First Fridays, and on Plaza weekends. Many of these buildings predate the automobile; confirm what off-street parking, if any, comes with the unit.

Traffic and noise

This is a thoroughfare neighborhood by construction: two museums, a college, a park and a hospital corridor draw foot and vehicle traffic through it at every hour. Street noise is a constant on the busier blocks. Traffic volume varies block to block — the arterial edges (Main, 39th, Emanuel Cleaver II) carry the most of it, the interior grid less — and many of these buildings still have their original single-pane historic sash, which does little for sound attenuation. Check the window glazing on any unit you are considering, and note whether the exterior faces an arterial or the interior grid.

Schools

Southmoreland is served by Kansas City Public Schools, District 33. District boundaries do not follow neighborhood or city lines — verify the assigned attendance area by exact street address.