After Four Year Campaign, City Calendars LGBT Historic Sites in Greenwich Village

(l.) The LGBT Community Center, 208 W. 13th Street, built 1869, 1899; (r.) the former Gay Activists Alliance Firehouse, 99 Wooster Street, built 1881.
Capping a four year drive by Village Preservation (the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation), the City voted today to calendar, or formally consider for landmark designation, two sites the group had long campaigned for: the LGBT Community Services Center at 208 West 13th Street and the former Gay Activists Alliance Firehouse at 99 Wooster Street. In 2014, Village Preservation proposed these sites along with the Stonewall Inn for landmark designation as the city’s first individual landmarks recognizing LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) history. In 2015, after a year and a half campaign, the City landmarked Stonewall, making it the city’s first landmark designation based upon LGBT history. But Village Preservation continued to campaign for these additional sites, which the City initially declined to consider. 

Today the City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to calendar these two sites, along with four others connected to LGBT history in Chelsea, on the Upper West Side, on Staten Island, and in lower Manhattan. Another LGBT historic site Village Preservation has urged the City to consider since 2014, Julius’ Bar at 159 West 10th Street, is still not under consideration for landmark designation. Public hearings will be held upon the sites and possible votes to landmark on June 4th. Learn more here about this Landmarking and Village Preservation’s ongoing work protecting LGBT historic sites including the Stonewall Inn and the East Village’s Pyramid Club at 101 Avenue A (and more about Village Preservation’s efforts to recognize and protect immigration, LGBT, African-American, and countercultural landmarks here). Read more about Village Preservation’s efforts around LGBT landmarks and history here and here.

TO HELP: 
Urge the Landmarks Preservation Commission to Landmark These LGBT Sites on June 4th – CLICK HERE
May 14, 2019