© 2025 Kansas City Public Radio
NPR in Kansas City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

A new Kansas City historic marker plaque will honor the iconic Womontown community

A new plaque in Kansas City's Longfellow neighborhood will highlight the Womontown community of the late 1980's and early 90's.
Andrea Nedelsky and Mary Ann Hopper
A new plaque in Kansas City's Longfellow neighborhood will highlight the Womontown community of the late 1980s and early 90s.

Kansas City, with help from the Gay and Lesbian Archives of Mid-America, will unveil a historical marker next Thursday in the Longfellow neighborhood highlighting the historic Womontown community that once lived there.

In the 1990s, a group of queer Kansas City women were fed up with harassment and housing discrimination. So, they transformed 12 city blocks in the Longfellow neighborhood into a radical enclave by and for women called Womontown.

On June 13, the city and the Gay and Lesbian Archives of Mid-America will unveil a historical marker plaque highlighting the significance of the neighborhood and what happened there.

Sue Moreno, an active member of the Womontown community during its heyday, told KCUR that the plaque is a dream come true.

"A lot of people still have not heard of Womontown, and we were right in the urban core right up from Crown Center at that time. It was not the luxury that it is now. But, it afforded us to be able to get together as a group and also have equity and financial stability," Moreno said.

  • Sue Moreno

Womontown Historic Marker Installation, 4 p.m. Thursday, June 13 at the corner of 27th Ter. and Charlotte St., Kansas City, Missouri 64109.

Stay Connected
When I host Up To Date each morning at 9, my aim is to engage the community in conversations about the Kansas City area’s challenges, hopes and opportunities. I try to ask the questions that listeners want answered about the day’s most pressing issues and provide a place for residents to engage directly with newsmakers. Reach me at steve@kcur.org or on Twitter @stevekraske.
As Up To Date’s senior producer, I want to pique the curiosity of Kansas Citians and help them understand the world around them. Each day, I construct conversations with our city’s most innovative visionaries and creatives, while striving to hold elected officials accountable and amplifying the voices of everyday Kansas Citians. Email me at zach@kcur.org.
No matter what happens in Washington D.C., Kansas City needs KCUR. And KCUR needs you.

Our ability to report local news — accurate, independent and paywall-free — depends on you. Donate now to support fact-based news.