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**

 7th Floor
 6th Floor
 5th Floor
 4th Floor
 3rd Floor
 2nd Floor
 1st Floor
 Basement
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....