Kansas City Museum Opening Downtown Exhibition Space in the Historic Garment District

By Kevin Collison

The Kansas City Museum is opening downtown exhibition space this summer in the 800 Broadway building in the heart of the Historic Garment District.

The 3,300 square-foot space on the first floor of 800 Broadway will feature both displays and programming beginning Aug. 16, according to a release from the museum. Hours will be Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It will operate in conjunction with the Historic Garment District Museum located across the street at 801 Broadway.

The new exhibition space at 800 Broadway will honor the history of the Kansas City Garment District which was one of the nation’s largest clothing design and manufacturing centers during much of the 20th Century. It will feature items from both the Kansas City Museum collection and the Garment District Museum.

“The Kansas City Museum has one of the largest and best represented collection of clothing materials in the Midwest, including couture gowns, day dresses, uniforms, overalls, shoes, hats, buttons and everything in between,” Denise Morrison, a curator at the museum, said in a statement.

The city-owned Kansas City Museum’s home in Corinthian Hall, a historic mansion at 3218 Gladstone Blvd., is currently undergoing a major renovation project.

Both the Kansas City Museum and the Historic Garment District Museum are operated and managed by the City Parks and Recreation Department. The city acquired the Garment District Museum’s collection of 350 garments made by local firms from the 1920s through 1970s in 2015.

The Historic Garment District is defined as the downtown area between 6th and 11th streets from Washington to Wyandotte streets. At one time, a dozen major clothing manufacturers operated in that area. Many of the historic brick buildings have since been renovated into residential and office space.

“The Historic Garment District is alive and growing with businesses, creatives and residents, and the expanded Historic Garment District Museum will offer a new element of cultural life to downtown Kansas City,” Anna Marie Tutera, the museum executive director, said in a statement.