Two of Kansas City's best historic house museums are within a mile of each other in the Ward Parkway corridor. The John Wornall House (1858) is a Greek Revival farmhouse that served as a field hospital during the Battle of Westport in 1864 — still the largest Civil War battle west of the Mississippi. The Alexander Majors House (1856) belonged to the founder of the Pony Express and Russell, Majors & Waddell, the freighting company that dominated westward transportation before the railroad. Both houses are operated together and offer guided tours.
The interiors are well-preserved and the interpretation is solid, placing both families in the context of Kansas City's frontier history and the Civil War's western theater. The Majors house in particular resonates: this was where the business of western expansion was planned, where the logistics of Manifest Destiny were worked out at a dining table in Missouri. A combined ticket covers both houses.