LGBTQ+ Heritage Will Always Be Integral to the Greenwich Village Story
Stonewall was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 21, 1999, following a nomination process that included Village Preservation (then known as the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation) and the now-defunct Organization of Lesbian and Gay Architects and Designers. The following year, the site, which comprises the Stonewall Inn, the adjacent Christopher Park, and surrounding streets, became a National Historic Landmark, one of a more exclusive subset of properties that, per the National Historic Landmarks Program website, represent “an outstanding aspect of American history and culture.”
In the case of Stonewall, that “outstanding aspect” of history was its crucial role in the fight for LGBTQ+ rights. These nominations represented two pivotal moments in the nation’s historic preservation movement: Stonewall was the first site in the United States to be designated as a landmark for its connections to LGBTQ+ history.
It took almost fifteen more years to get the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) to begin designating sites specifically for their contributions to LGBTQ+ heritage, but in June of 2015, an advocacy effort led by Village Preservation (with the support of elected officials, LGBTQ+ groups, and other preservation organizations), convinced the LPC to designate Stonewall an individual city landmark, making it the first site designated by the City of New York based on LGBTQ+ history. The LPC designation report cites Stonewall as “one of the most important sites associated with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender history in New York City and the nation,” also making Stonewall one of the first and, to date, among the few designations to explicitly acknowledge transgender history and the role that transgender individuals had in shaping our city’s history. (Another instance is the designation report for the South Village Historic District — also proposed and advocated for by Village Preservation — designated December 17, 2013, which includes a section entitled “The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender [LGBT] Community’s Presence in the South Village.”)
Crafted nearly two decades prior, at a time when transgender history was much more invisible and under-acknowledged than even today, the National Historic Landmark listing for Stonewall, in contrast, does not include the term “transgender” outright. It tells the story of the Stonewall Uprising, referencing gay and lesbian liberation numerous times, and includes phrases such as “men in drag,” noting that cross-dressing was still illegal when the Stonewall Riots were taking place in the summer of 1969. Many of the letters in support of designation by community groups and individuals, appended to the document, express commitment to preserving the “gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender” history that took place there. But the contributions of the transgender population that pivotal summer were not written into national-level documentation until Stonewall became a National Monument, one of only roughly 120 in the U.S., in 2016, designated as such by President Barack Obama. The Stonewall National Monument was and still is the only one dedicated to LGBTQ+ history and rights.
Designation reports, which record the reasons why a site has been elevated to city, state, or national landmark status, are critical written documents that help us preserve our nation’s history. This form of documentation is, however, relatively young (the New York City Landmarks Law of 1965, followed soon after by the National Preservation Act of 1966, were the start of the formal preservation movement in the United States), and the information recorded and facets of history we choose to acknowledge are ever-evolving.
Early designations focused almost entirely on architectural significance, and it’s only in the past decade or two that stories of the people who inhabited these places have really become part of the written record via these designations. These layers of cultural history, the people and movements that inhabited these places, are a huge part of what make our historic sites significant and worthy of preservation, and it is increasingly essential that we continue to record these stories – especially when it comes to layers of history that have long been present, but are often invisible, under recognized, or even facing threat of intentional erasure.
Stonewall was a critical turning point for the modern LGBTQ+ rights movement in the U.S., and it is important to further acknowledge just how deep LGBTQ+ history runs through our neighborhoods, stretching from well over a century before 1969 up to this day. Village Preservation has and will continue to tell these critical stories. Our Civil Rights and Social Justice Map includes nearly 60 sites of significance to LGBTQ+ history and we continue to add new ones. While many of these places include elements important to and inclusive of transgender people, three sites — Weinstein Hall, S.T.A.R. (Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries) House, and the Pyramid Club — have transgender history and experience at the heart of their stories. We also maintain an LGBTQ+ history page on our website, which is continually being updated.
Village Preservation has long been one of the key organizations leading the charge to get more historic sites recognized for their LGBTQ+ history, and in 2019 succeeded in achieving NYC landmark status for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center, the Gay Activists Alliance Fire House, and the Caffe Cino, all significant sites for their LGBTQ+ heritage. In 2022, we pushed the LPC to designate Julius’ Bar (where the “Sip In” took place three years before the Stonewall Uprising). We will continue to fight for this and many other crucial layers of cultural history in our neighborhoods to be recognized and preserved.