Historic ‘haunted’ house in Kansas City to become a boutique hotel with a spa

A famous mansion with a “haunted” history on the University of Missouri-Kansas City campus could be remade into a boutique hotel with a café, a full-service restaurant, event space and a hydrothermal spa.

The Epperson House, a Tudor-Gothic mansion at 5200 Cherry St., was built in the early 1920s for insurance executive and philanthropist Uriah Epperson and his wife Mary. The 54-room, four-story home resembles a castle and cost $500,000, or more than $8 million in today’s dollars, and featured an indoor swimming pool, elevators, a custom-built organ and a basement tunnel between wings.

Uriah Epperson died in 1927. After Mary Epperson died in 1939, an associate of Uriah gifted the house to the university in 1942, according to The Star’s archives. Over the decades, UMKC has used it for various purposes including as dorm space and as practice space for conservatory musicians.

But it has sat empty for over a decade in the face of costly repairs to bring the building up to code and meet requirements for accessibility. The Epperson House has made Historic Kansas City’s list of most endangered places.

University officials have been working on a solution to save the house for years and put out a call in 2023 for developers to suggest a project for the site.

According to a Wednesday news release, the university has secured an agreement with a development group to turn the Epperson House into a 14-room hotel. The group includes Sunflower Development Group and hospitality veteran Jen Gulvik, the release says.

“This is an exciting step forward for the future of this beloved local historic treasure,”

UMKC Chancellor Mauli Agrawal said in a statement. “One of the most frequent questions I get about UMKC is about next steps for the Epperson House, and now I finally can share a promising answer.”

The proposed hotel will include a café, a restaurant, a library bar and space for events. It will also have a spa that will offer body and facial treatments, ancient European-style baths, hot and cold therapies, retreats, workshops with visiting practitioners and other wellness programs.

Alongside Sunflower and Gulvik, working on the project is architecture firm Generator Studio and Heritage Consulting Group.

“We look forward to engaging with the university, neighborhood and Kansas City preservation community in our development and historic rehabilitation plans,” Mark Moberly, of Sunflower Development Group, said in a statement. “It’s an important architectural landmark in the area and bridges the university to the neighborhood.”

Moberly called the project an exciting opportunity, in partnership with his alma mater, that will create a destination everyone in the community can be proud of.

Such a restoration project could cost millions. Developers expect to seek partners for financing and operations while pursuing state and federal historic tax credits “to turn the project into a reality within the next few years,” the release says. Further details are to be announced.

Epperson House on UMKC campus has paranormal past

The Epperson House is known for its supposedly haunted past. The Eppersons, who were major patrons of the local arts, were close with organist Harriet Barse and fondly called her their adopted daughter.

Barse joined the Eppersons as they moved into the house, and she oversaw the installation of a special organ loft in the home. However, Barse reportedly died during surgery after falling ill in 1922 before she could play the instrument.

Navy cadets who stayed at the house during World World II were the first to report a ghostly woman in a white gown walking the hallways of the house, and further reports of strange happenings emerged in the 1970s during the house’s time as space for the music conservatory.

Students reported seeing the ghostly figure, hearing footsteps in empty areas and seeing the light on top of the tower turn on by itself, even though the tower had been sealed. Some also heard organ music coming from the basement.

Chris Wolff, a historian of the Epperson who leads tours outside the home during the Halloween season, shares the house’s storied past and ghostly lore with visitors.

“To say people are captivated by Epperson House is an understatement,” Wolff said in a statement. “I’m ecstatic that it has interested people who have a vision to restore and repurpose it so all of Kansas City can enjoy it into the future.”