UMKC: Historic Epperson House turns boutique hotel, spa
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - A well-known historic mansion on the University of Missouri, Kansas City (UMKC) campus is preparing to breathe new life.
Insurance tycoon and meat-packing businessman, Uriah Epperson, ordered the 52-room, 24,000 square-foot Tudor-Gothic mansion built at 5200 Cherry Street in 1920 at a cost of $450,000 - equivalent to more than $8 million in 2025.
The redevelopment transforms Kansas City’s historic gem into a modern-day “14-room boutique hotel with a café, small library bar, full-service restaurant, intimate event space, and a hydrothermal spa offering body and facial treatments, ancient European baths, hot and cold therapies, visiting practitioner workshops and retreats and other wellness programming.”
“One of the most frequent questions I get about UMKC is next steps for the Epperson House, and now I can finally share a promising answer,” said UMKC Chancellor Mauli Agrawal.
Eventually gifted to UMKC, Epperson House was used for a variety of purposes over the years but has sat empty for more than a decade with the Historic Kansas City Foundation listing it on its most endangered buildings list.
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The university recently announced the Sunflower Development Group in partnership with Jen Gulvik will take on its transformation. The design architect will be Kansas City-based Generator Studio.
It is said the unique heritage of the Epperson House will be preserved. Among the house’s unusual features: ornate woodwork, an indoor swimming pool, billiard room, barbershop, a custom organ, and a tunnel linking the east and west wings.
“The restored Epperson House will serve the neighborhood, UMKC faculty, staff and students, visitors to Kansas City, and the community at large - especially given its proximity to the KC Streetcar stop at UMKC, slated to open later this year,” said Gulvik.
The team is seeking financial partners as well as pursuing state and federal historic tax credits. They estimate it will take a few years to collect funds needed to begin construction.
“What an exciting opportunity to work with my alma mater to create a destination everyone can be proud of,” said Mark Moberly of Sunflower Development Group.
The mansion also holds a long-time reputation as being haunted by the ghost of the Epperson’s ‘adopted daughter’, in name only. She was an organ student at UMKC’s Music Conservatory who lived and died in the house before construction of the in-home organ was complete. It remains to be seen if that history will be embraced in the new design.
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