United States · Missouri · Kansas City
West Bottoms, Kansas City — Area Guide & Where to Stay
West Bottoms is the brick warehouse flat west of downtown Kansas City, where the Kansas River joins the Missouri River.
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Where to stay in West Bottoms
The practical side of choosing where to sleep.
Quality Hill takes the beds. The 21c Museum Hotel Kansas City sits up on that rise, minutes from the warehouse blocks below and inside the downtown grid. Stay there if you want a short walk down into the West Bottoms and a short walk back out.
Travelers who would rather be near the rail hall and the plaza can look toward Union Station and Barney Allis Plaza instead, where the downtown blocks carry hotels the warehouse flats never had.
Find hotels in West Bottoms
Direct booking searches for these neighbourhoods.
Quality Hill
The rise directly above the West Bottoms, where the 21c Museum Hotel Kansas City puts the old warehouse streets within a downhill walk.Find hotels in Quality Hillrail arrivals and museum morningsUnion Station
The downtown terrace around Science City at Union Station and Barney Allis Plaza, holding the choice of rooms the flats below never carried.Find hotels in Union StationHotel links are affiliate links: booking through them may earn us a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never affects how places are ranked. How this works
Things to do in and around Kansas City
Ranked by global recognition; descriptions from Wikidata (CC0).
Museums & Galleries
3- National World War I Memorial Heritage
- Arabia Steamboat Museum
- 21c Museum Hotel Kansas City
Churches & Religious Sites
4- Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Heritage
- St. Mary's Episcopal Church Heritage
- Sacred Heart Church, School and Rectory Heritage
- Grand Avenue Temple and Grand Avenue Temple Building Heritage
Stadiums & Sports
1- Barney Allis Plaza
Landmarks & Notable Places
3- Frank M. Howe Residence Heritage
- Joseph Grear Peppard House Heritage
- Maj. William Warner House Heritage
worth knowingacross 4 categories in and around Kansas City
About West Bottoms
What are the main landmarks in West Bottoms?
West Bottoms keeps its brick industrial buildings. Most have been converted to galleries, restaurants and apartments, and antique shops and haunted-house attractions draw the crowds. Science City at Union Station fills part of the old railway hall on the terrace above, and Barney Allis Plaza sits on that same downtown rise.
The Arabia Steamboat Museum keeps to the levee, north of the flats. Above the valley the National World War I Memorial rises on its own hill, and the National Airline History Museum sits out by the airfield across the water.
What is the history of West Bottoms?
François Chouteau settled the flats permanently in the early 1800s as part of French Bottoms, trading with the native tribes already on this ground and with the American pioneers who followed the rivers west. Kaw Point sits across the water. That point had served the Lewis and Clark Expedition as an early campsite, and the tribes had worked the whole bottomland long before either party arrived.
Along with Westport, this is among the oldest ground in the metro, and neighboring Quality Hill grew as the center of the pioneer Town of Kansas that became Kansas City, Missouri.
Where is West Bottoms?
The flats lie immediately west of downtown, straddling the border of Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Kansas, with Kaw Point across the water.
Common questions
What is the best area to stay in West Bottoms?
Quality Hill: walking downhill into the warehouse blocks. Union Station: rail arrivals and museum mornings.
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Updated October 2026