John Wornall House Museum

The John Wornall House Museum is a historic house museum in Kansas City, Missouri. The museum, located at 6115 Wornall Road in the Brookside area of Kansas City, is furnished to represent the daily life of a prosperous, pre-Civil War family.HistoryThe house was built in 1858 by John B. Wornall in the Greek Revival style of architecture, with bricks hand-fired on the Wornalls' property. It is one of the four remaining Civil War period homes in the Kansas City area. John Wornall's father, Richard Wornall, had owned a mule- and horse-trading business in Shelbyville, Kentucky, which ran into financial difficulties. In 1843 Richard Wornall sold 640acre of Shelby County land, thirteen slaves, and most of his livestock and possessions to settle debts totaling almost $25,000. With the rest of his money, Richard Wornall, his wife Judith, and their two sons George Thomas and John Bristow moved to Westport, Missouri. Upon arrival there in October 1843, Richard Wornall purchased five slaves and a 500acre farm from the town father, John Calvin McCoy. The land, for which Wornall paid $5 per acre, stretched between present-day 59th and 67th streets, State Line and Main Street in what is now Kansas City.Richard and Judith's second son, John B. Wornall, eventually inherited the property and built the present house for his second wife, Eliza S. Johnson Wornall.During the American Civil War, the Wornalls' home was used as a field hospital for both the Union and Confederate forces after the Battle of Westport.