2025 Village Award Winner: Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center
Village Preservation is proud to honor the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center as a 2025 Village Awardee! Join us in recognizing SNMVC and the five other remarkable awardees at Village Preservation’s Annual Meeting and Village Awards on Wednesday, June 11th, at the historic Great Hall at Cooper Union. Registration is free and open to all. Click here to register.
The Stonewall Uprising is widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the gay rights movement and the modern fight for LGBTQ+ rights in the United States. The Stonewall National Monument commemorates this crucial aspect of our neighborhood’s, city’s, and country’s history, and is the first National Monument designated to mark LGBTQIA+ history.
In 2016, at the ribbon cutting for the Stonewall National Monument, the idea was born to create a Visitor Center, a place where the history of the Stonewall Uprising could be recorded and shared with hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world. Diana Rodriguez, Co-Founder and CEO of Pride Live — a non-profit organization founded in 2012 with an unwavering mission to accelerate awareness and advance the fight for full LGBTQIA+ equality, and which was involved in the national campaign to bring about the Stonewall National Monument — and Ann Marie Gothard, Pride Live’s President & Board Chair, set out to make the center a reality.
They were able to secure the ideal spot to host a welcoming visitor center for the national monument: the portion of the original Stonewall Inn building that had never reopened as a bar, and which had, for decades, been occupied by nondescript commercial uses such as a nail salon. Initially, the intent was to purchase the building outright, but they later arrived at a leasing arrangement with the owners. Recognizing the importance of getting the center open as soon as possible, so that all visitors to the monument could learn about and understand the significance of the site, the center was built under-budget and on time.
On the occasion of the 55th anniversary of Stonewall, June 28, 2024, the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center opened to joyous fanfare. The center immediately became a key player in preserving and sharing LGBTQ+ history for and with all Americans, particularly through interactive exhibitions, and via partnerships and collaborations with other organizations — like ours!
While SNMVC has quickly become an incredible international destination, they have also formed substantial ties within the local Greenwich Village community, to which their history and mission is deeply rooted. The space that the center occupies is in and of itself a crucial part of this history. They took a historic interior, comprising approximately one half of the original Stonewall Inn (which is not an interior landmark, and thus has no mandates for its restoration) and did a spectacular job of exposing and integrating original elements, while creating a beautiful and successful modern museum gallery space.
The visitor center displays artifacts of both LGBTQ+ history and from the original bar, including a jukebox that plays 1960s hits. There are permanent and rotating exhibits, plus a meeting/educational space. The visitor center is open six days a week, and is completely free and open to the public, with no tickets required for entry.
In just shy of a year, SNMVC has already welcomed visitors from school groups across the country and the world, and people from all 50 states, Washington D.C., and 76 countries… and counting. On April 22, 2025, they hit the remarkable achievement of reaching 50,000 visitors.
The visitor center provides a safe space for LGBTQIA+ individuals to express themselves, and educates all visitors about Stonewall’s history and legacy. Because the center is an independently operated nonprofit, it is able to continue telling the full story of Stonewall, including the transgender and gender non-conforming individuals who are integral to its legacy, no matter what directives from the Federal government may impact interpretation at the National Monument site itself. In response to the National Park Service’s recent removal of Transgender Individuals from the Stonewall National Monument website, SNMVC issued the following statement:
“Pride Live is a non-profit organization founded on the principle of advancing the fight for full LGBTQIA+ equality. Through the creation of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center, we’re unwavering in our effort to protect and preserve Stonewall’s legacy and history. Our space is inextricably linked with and honors the brave pioneers, especially transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals, who led the Stonewall Rebellion. Independently owned and operated, and 100% supported by donations, we will continue our mission to ensure that every person has access to learn about and see themselves in history.”
At a time when so much is uncertain, the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center is a beacon of hope, resilience, and pride. They will continue to tell the stories of all of the diverse and courageous individuals who fiercely advocated for gay rights during the Stonewall Rebellion and since, as will Village Preservation. We hope you’ll register to join us in celebrating the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center and our five other inspiring Village Awardees on June 11th.
REGISTER HERE to be a part of the free community celebration at our Annual Meeting and Village Awards.