Oscar Wilde Apartments

The Oscar Wilde Apartments were designed by Nelle E. Peters in the 1920s. It was built at the same time as other buildings named after authors in Kansas City, including Mark Twain, James Russell Lowell, Robert Louis Stevenson, Washington Irving, Thomas Carlyle, Eugene Field, and Robert Browning. In its heyday,
At one time The Oscar Wilde was a showplace. The lobby was especially lovely with ivory-colored walls, a mural along the back, dark wood floors and elevators with shining brass doors.
As the years passed, the building became run down. It was one of Nelle E. Peter’s only buildings named after an author that was not located on the west side of Kansas City’s Country Club Plaza known as the “literary block.” The location of The Oscar Wilde became a less than desirable area of town.
Then in the 1980s, many gay men began to move into the building during first wave of the AIDS epidemic. These men, and the many more that moved in after that, did what gay men do. They refurbished and improved the units. Soon the management and owners of the building decided to give rent breaks to people who improve their apartment (if what they were doing was approved). This tradition continues until today.
Many of the residents today are GLBT. And many of them affectionately call it “The Wild.” They also love the ironic turn of events that this mostly GLBT building was named after a famous gay man, Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900). Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, novelist, essayist, and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. He is remembered for his epigrams, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, his plays—notably The Importance of Being Earnest, and sadly because of the circumstances of his arrest and imprisonment for gross indecency with men—for being gay. Therefor the residents of the building have made him their hero and celebrate his birthday each year in a big party in the lobby.
Interestingly enough, many residents, after moving in, chose to stay. Because the building has many different kinds of units, from studio apartments to larger, more luxurious, three bedroom apartments, people will move to a different unit rather than move to a different location all together. A huge part of that is the family the mostly GLBT residents have become. Why move someplace where they are the "10%" when they can be more like the 75%?
Today, life is good amongst the residents of The Oscar Wilde!
THE RESIDENTS OF THE OSCAR WILDE APARTMENTS—FLOOR BY FLOOR
Top Floor	Gabe Richard’s apartment for most of the events that take place in The Boy Who Came In From The Cold.
7th Floor	
Tommy Smith’s apartment at the time of The Real Thing and All Alone in a Sea of Romance. Tommy and Jude Parks move into a larger, nicer apartment on the same floor by the end of All Alone in a Sea of Romance.
During the 1920's, Hugh Naylor and Robert Daniels’ have an apartment on this floor in It Had to Be You. Interestingly enough, it will one day be the apartment of Tommy Smith and Jude Parks.
6th Floor	Harry Fielding and Cody Washington move to this floor after becoming a couple. They are living there at the time of Bianca’s Plan.
Roy Sinclair from To Be Announced lives on this floor as well, in one of the end, nicer apartments.
5th Floor	
H.D. “Hound Dog” Fisher’s apartment at the time of Hound Dog & Bean.
Tiffany 'Tiff' Webster’s apartment at the time of Hound Dog & Bean. She used to live on the 4th floor at the time Christmas Wish.
4th Floor	
Harry Fielding at the time of Christmas Wish. However, he moves in with Cody Washington onto the 6th floor.
Gavin King, Bianca King and Curtis Harrell’s apartment. Gavin and Curtis lived in separate apartments at the beginning of Bianca’s Plan. They move in together.
3rd Floor	---
2nd Floor	
Cody Washington at the time of Christmas Wish. But he and Harry move up to the 6th floor.
Preston Leroy’s apartment at the time of Bianca's Plan.
1st Floor	Lobby, manager’s office, and onsite manager’s apartment.
Mr. Martinez is the onsite manager at the time of The Boy Who Came In From The Cold and Hound Dog & Bean. He is not one of the actual managers or owners of The Oscar Wilde.
Basement 	A laundry room with washers and dryers
A slowly growing gym. A grant allowed them to purchase two top notch treadmills and a few weights. then the residents threw a charity carnival with games and a kissing booth and a psychic and raised money for a multi station weight system and an more free weights. One resident convinced a high school who was throwing out a lockers when they had been replaced to donate them to The Oscar WIlde and that added to the gym. One of the resident's next goals is a couple of shower rooms, but that might be a long way coming....
Category:Locations