How Well Do You Know New York City Landmarks Associated with LGBTQ History?
Happy Pride! This interactive tool will help you explore New York City's landmarks and historic districts that recognize and represent the City's LGBTQ culture and history.
Image of Stone Wall Inn, via Wikimedia Commons, author Rhododendrites
Happy Pride! This interactive tool will help you explore New York City's landmarks and historic districts that recognize and represent the City's LGBTQ culture and history.
Image of Stone Wall Inn, via Wikimedia Commons, author Rhododendrites
1. What was the location of a police raid in 1969 that led to an uprising lasting several days, considered to be the origin of the modern fight for LGBTQ rights and one of the most important sites associated with LGBTQ history in New York City and the nation?
Stonewall Inn
Westbeth
Gay Activist Alliance Firehouse
Julius’s Bar
The Stonewall Inn was a Greenwich Village gathering place for the LGBTQ community in the late 1960s. Because it welcomed gays and lesbians, repressive laws made it impossible to obtain a liquor license, and it was frequently raided by the police, leading to the arrests of many patrons. On the night of June 28, 1969, the bar’s clientele fought back against the police, leading to several days and nights of demonstrations. The resulting movement generated great progress for LGBTQ rights.
The Stonewall Inn was designated an individual landmark on June 23, 2015. This marked the first time a site was designated as a New York City Landmark primarily for its significance to LGBTQ history.
Did you know that 50 years ago this week, on June 28, 1970 the Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day March set off from the Stonewall Inn?
Image: Stone Wall Inn, via Wikimedia Commons, author Rhododendrites
The Stonewall Inn was a Greenwich Village gathering place for the LGBTQ community in the late 1960s. Because it welcomed gays and lesbians, repressive laws made it impossible to obtain a liquor license, and it was frequently raided by the police, leading to the arrests of many patrons. On the night of June 28, 1969, the bar’s clientele fought back against the police, leading to several days and nights of demonstrations. The resulting movement generated great progress for LGBTQ rights.
The Stonewall Inn was designated an individual landmark on June 23, 2015. This marked the first time a site was designated as a New York City Landmark primarily for its significance to LGBTQ history.
Did you know that 50 years ago this week, on June 28, 1970 the Christopher Street Gay Liberation Day March set off from the Stonewall Inn?
Image: Stone Wall Inn, via Wikimedia Commons, author Rhododendrites
2. What Greenwich Village institution occupies the former P.S. 16, a 19th century Italianate building?
The Daughters of Bilitis
The Caffe Cino
The LGBT Community Center
Webster Hall
The LGBT Community Center, aka the Center, was founded in 1984 in a former school building. Built around 1869, the school was expanded twice before the end of the century. The Food and Marine Trades Vocational High School was the last occupant before the Board of Education sold the building and a coalition of organizations moved in, including the Partnership for the Homeless, SAGE, Metropolitan Community Church and the Community Health Project. The building underwent a major renovation in 2001 to upgrade the facilities and add safety features.
Since 1984 the Center has played a key role in supporting the rights, health, and wellness of the LGBTQ community, welcoming hundreds of community groups and hosting meetings, celebrations, workshops, cultural events, and mental health and social services.
Since 1984 the Center has played a key role in supporting the rights, health, and wellness of the LGBTQ community, welcoming hundreds of community groups and hosting meetings, celebrations, workshops, cultural events, and mental health and social services.
On June 18, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center as an individual New York City Landmark.
Image: LGBT Community Center, via Landmarks Preservation Comission
The LGBT Community Center, aka the Center, was founded in 1984 in a former school building. Built around 1869, the school was expanded twice before the end of the century. The Food and Marine Trades Vocational High School was the last occupant before the Board of Education sold the building and a coalition of organizations moved in, including the Partnership for the Homeless, SAGE, Metropolitan Community Church and the Community Health Project. The building underwent a major renovation in 2001 to upgrade the facilities and add safety features.
Since 1984 the Center has played a key role in supporting the rights, health, and wellness of the LGBTQ community, welcoming hundreds of community groups and hosting meetings, celebrations, workshops, cultural events, and mental health and social services.
Since 1984 the Center has played a key role in supporting the rights, health, and wellness of the LGBTQ community, welcoming hundreds of community groups and hosting meetings, celebrations, workshops, cultural events, and mental health and social services.
On June 18, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center as an individual New York City Landmark.
Image: LGBT Community Center, via Landmarks Preservation Comission
3. Which landmark was New York City's first gay theater and the birthplace of Off-Off-Broadway?
La Mama Experimental Theater
Joseph Papp Public Theater
Cherry Lane Theater
The Caffe Cino
The Caffe Cino, which occupied the ground floor commercial space at 31 Cornelia Street from 1958 to 1968, was the birthplace of Off-Off-Broadway and New York City’s first gay theater. It served as a venue for new and unknown playwrights, most of whom were gay men to share their work at a time when portraying homosexuality in theatrical productions was a criminal offense. The recognition and encouragement of the homosexual experience exhibited at the Caffe Cino, both on and off stage, helped build the foundation for the LGBTQ liberation movement that was subsequently launched by the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969.
On June 18, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate the Caffe Cino as an individual New York City Landmark primarily for its significance to LGBTQ history.
Image: Caffe Cino, 1965, Photo by James D. Gossage, via New York Public Library
The Caffe Cino, which occupied the ground floor commercial space at 31 Cornelia Street from 1958 to 1968, was the birthplace of Off-Off-Broadway and New York City’s first gay theater. It served as a venue for new and unknown playwrights, most of whom were gay men to share their work at a time when portraying homosexuality in theatrical productions was a criminal offense. The recognition and encouragement of the homosexual experience exhibited at the Caffe Cino, both on and off stage, helped build the foundation for the LGBTQ liberation movement that was subsequently launched by the Stonewall Rebellion in 1969.
On June 18, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate the Caffe Cino as an individual New York City Landmark primarily for its significance to LGBTQ history.
Image: Caffe Cino, 1965, Photo by James D. Gossage, via New York Public Library
4. What pioneering organizations were headquartered in the Madison Square North Historic District starting in the 1950s, predating the Stonewall movement by a decade?
East Coast Homophile Organizations
The Mattachine Society
The Daughters of Bilitis
All of the above
Two pioneering pre-Stonewall LGBTQ rights groups had offices at 1133 Broadway, in the Madison Square North Historic District, from 1959-1968. The Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis fought for the decriminalization of homosexuality and basic human rights for LGBTQ people at a time when it was incredibly risky to be openly homosexual. The groups engaged in education such as lectures, published newsletters, and engaged in other public relations campaigns to further LGBTQ rights. The East Coast Homophile Organizations also had office space in the building.
The Madison Square North Historic District, designated in 2001, is primarily comprised of commercial buildings dating to the mid-19th century, with hotels, clubs, retail businesses, and later offices and lofts. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Classical Revival and Beaux-Arts style high rise buildings were constructed in the area.
The Madison Square North Historic District, designated in 2001, is primarily comprised of commercial buildings dating to the mid-19th century, with hotels, clubs, retail businesses, and later offices and lofts. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Classical Revival and Beaux-Arts style high rise buildings were constructed in the area.
Image: Barbara Gittings planning future issues of "The Ladder", via New York Public Library
Two pioneering pre-Stonewall LGBTQ rights groups had offices at 1133 Broadway, in the Madison Square North Historic District, from 1959-1968. The Mattachine Society and the Daughters of Bilitis fought for the decriminalization of homosexuality and basic human rights for LGBTQ people at a time when it was incredibly risky to be openly homosexual. The groups engaged in education such as lectures, published newsletters, and engaged in other public relations campaigns to further LGBTQ rights. The East Coast Homophile Organizations also had office space in the building.
The Madison Square North Historic District, designated in 2001, is primarily comprised of commercial buildings dating to the mid-19th century, with hotels, clubs, retail businesses, and later offices and lofts. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Classical Revival and Beaux-Arts style high rise buildings were constructed in the area.
The Madison Square North Historic District, designated in 2001, is primarily comprised of commercial buildings dating to the mid-19th century, with hotels, clubs, retail businesses, and later offices and lofts. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Classical Revival and Beaux-Arts style high rise buildings were constructed in the area.
Image: Barbara Gittings planning future issues of "The Ladder", via New York Public Library
5. What well-known public sculpture is the work of a 19th century American sculptor Emma Stebbins, a lesbian who lived openly in Rome with her actress partner?
Image: Emma Stebbins, photographer unknown, public domain, via The World of Wonder Report
The Statue of Liberty
Alice in Wonderland
Washington Heights-Inwood War Memorial
The Angel of the Waters
The Angel of the Waters is perhaps the best-known work by 19th century sculptor Emma Stebbins. It occupies a place of prominence atop the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, where it has been a backdrop for iconic movie scenes and Tony Kushner’s AIDS-themed play Angels in America.
In her early 40s, Emma Stebbins traveled to Rome to pursue her study of sculpture, where she met another American expatriate, actress Charlotte Cushman. Stebbins lived openly with Cushman in Rome for 12 years until Cushman’s health necessitated that they return to New York, where they lived the remainder of their lives. Stebbins is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Central Park was New York City’s first scenic landmark, designated in April 1974.
Image of the Angels of the Waters, via Wikimedia Commons, author Andrés Nieto Porras
The Angel of the Waters is perhaps the best-known work by 19th century sculptor Emma Stebbins. It occupies a place of prominence atop the Bethesda Fountain in Central Park, where it has been a backdrop for iconic movie scenes and Tony Kushner’s AIDS-themed play Angels in America.
In her early 40s, Emma Stebbins traveled to Rome to pursue her study of sculpture, where she met another American expatriate, actress Charlotte Cushman. Stebbins lived openly with Cushman in Rome for 12 years until Cushman’s health necessitated that they return to New York, where they lived the remainder of their lives. Stebbins is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
Central Park was New York City’s first scenic landmark, designated in April 1974.
Image of the Angels of the Waters, via Wikimedia Commons, author Andrés Nieto Porras
6. What Staten Island neighborhood is the location of Marr Lodge, the home of opera singer Graham Marr and his partner, landscape painter Norman Robert Morrison?
Lighthouse Hill
Stapleton Heights
St. George
Mariner’s Harbor
Constructed in 1856, the Italianate Nathaniel J. and Ann C. Wyeth House is rare remaining representative of the villas that were once found throughout Staten Island. Located in Lighthouse Hill, the Wyeths called the house Florence Home, but it is better known as Marr Lodge. Opera singer Graham Marr owned the mid-19th century house from 1925 until his death in 1961, where he lived with his partner, landscape painter Norman Robert Morrison. The house was designated an individual landmark in 2007.
Did you know that the Lighthouse Hill neighborhood is also home to the only Frank Lloyd Wright designed house in New York City and the Staten Island Lighthouse, both designated New York City Landmarks?
Did you know that the Lighthouse Hill neighborhood is also home to the only Frank Lloyd Wright designed house in New York City and the Staten Island Lighthouse, both designated New York City Landmarks?
Image: Marr Lodge, via Landmarks Preservation Comission
Constructed in 1856, the Italianate Nathaniel J. and Ann C. Wyeth House is rare remaining representative of the villas that were once found throughout Staten Island. Located in Lighthouse Hill, the Wyeths called the house Florence Home, but it is better known as Marr Lodge. Opera singer Graham Marr owned the mid-19th century house from 1925 until his death in 1961, where he lived with his partner, landscape painter Norman Robert Morrison. The house was designated an individual landmark in 2007.
Did you know that the Lighthouse Hill neighborhood is also home to the only Frank Lloyd Wright designed house in New York City and the Staten Island Lighthouse, both designated New York City Landmarks?
Did you know that the Lighthouse Hill neighborhood is also home to the only Frank Lloyd Wright designed house in New York City and the Staten Island Lighthouse, both designated New York City Landmarks?
Image: Marr Lodge, via Landmarks Preservation Comission
7. Between 1998 and 2013, the former American Bank Note Company Printing Plant was home to what leading performance group focused on LGBTQ-themed works?
The Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!)
Arthur Aviles Typical Theatre (AATT)
Bronx Dance Coalition
All of the above
The former American Bank Note Company Printing Plant was vacant for many years when in 1998, a group of artists and performers came together to adapt the space into the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!), with the intent to empower and showcase works by the LGBTQ community, along with those by women and people of color. Arthur Aviles, choreographer and advocate for Puerto Rican visibility and LGBTQ rights, was the driving force behind this development.
The former American Bank Note Company Printing Plant was designated an individual New York City Landmark in February 2008.
Image: Former American Bank Note Company Printing Plant, via Landmarks Preservation Comission
The former American Bank Note Company Printing Plant was vacant for many years when in 1998, a group of artists and performers came together to adapt the space into the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD!), with the intent to empower and showcase works by the LGBTQ community, along with those by women and people of color. Arthur Aviles, choreographer and advocate for Puerto Rican visibility and LGBTQ rights, was the driving force behind this development.
The former American Bank Note Company Printing Plant was designated an individual New York City Landmark in February 2008.
Image: Former American Bank Note Company Printing Plant, via Landmarks Preservation Comission
8. What New York State Poet Laureate, essayist and outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights lived in Staten Island’s St. Paul’s Avenue-Stapleton Heights Historic District from 1972 to 1978?
Hint: Her house was designated an individual landmark in 2019.
Adrienne Rich
Audrey Lorde
Gertrude Stein
Mary Oliver
Audre Lorde lived at 207 St. Paul’s Avenue in the St. Paul’s Avenue-Stapleton Heights Historic District, where she wrote many of her most famous poems and books, including her third volume of poetry, From a Land Where Other People Live, which was nominated for a National Book Award in 1973. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Lorde also became a prominent political activist in a number of arenas, including African-American civil rights, feminism, and the gay and lesbian movement. In 1979 Lorde spoke at the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. In 1980 she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, a publisher dedicated to producing work by and about women of color. Her book, I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities (1986) was one of its publications. In 1991, Lorde was appointed as the Poet Laureate for New York State for her contributions to literature and activism. Her neo-Colonial-style house, which was constructed in 1898, was designated an Individual New York City Landmark in 2019.
There are so many roots to the tree of anger
that sometimes the branches shatter
before they bear.*
*From "Who Said It Was Simple", From a Land Where Other People Live, Audre Lorde, 1973
Image: Audre Lorde Residence, via Landmarks Preservation Comission
Audre Lorde lived at 207 St. Paul’s Avenue in the St. Paul’s Avenue-Stapleton Heights Historic District, where she wrote many of her most famous poems and books, including her third volume of poetry, From a Land Where Other People Live, which was nominated for a National Book Award in 1973. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Lorde also became a prominent political activist in a number of arenas, including African-American civil rights, feminism, and the gay and lesbian movement. In 1979 Lorde spoke at the National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights. In 1980 she co-founded Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, a publisher dedicated to producing work by and about women of color. Her book, I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities (1986) was one of its publications. In 1991, Lorde was appointed as the Poet Laureate for New York State for her contributions to literature and activism. Her neo-Colonial-style house, which was constructed in 1898, was designated an Individual New York City Landmark in 2019.
There are so many roots to the tree of anger
that sometimes the branches shatter
before they bear.*
*From "Who Said It Was Simple", From a Land Where Other People Live, Audre Lorde, 1973
Image: Audre Lorde Residence, via Landmarks Preservation Comission
9. Between 1971 and 1974, 99 Wooster Street in SoHo was the headquarters of the Gay Activists Alliance. What was the building’s original function?
Factory
Library
Residence
Firehouse
Designated an individual landmark in 2019 as the Gay Activists Alliance Firehouse, 99 Wooster Street in the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District has been described as New York City’s “first gay community center.” GAA was founded in December 1969 “to secure basic human rights, dignity, and freedom for all gay people.” It was most prominent in 1971-74, when it used the former firehouse as its headquarters. In addition to containing Alliance offices, the firehouse was an important gathering place where weekly committee meetings, Saturday night dances, and cultural activities were held. GAA produced weekly programs that were broadcast on cable television and published Gay Activist, a monthly newssheet. Many LGBTQ groups met in the building, including Lesbian Feminist Liberation, Gay Youth, Gay Men’s Health Project, and the Catholic group Dignity.
The group’s most famous activist tactic was the “zap,” a direct but non-violent, sometimes humorous, public confrontation with politicians and celebrities intended to promote the cause of gay rights and generate media attention. GAA disrupted many events, organized well-attended marches and demonstrations, and held protests and sit-ins to shape public opinion and government policy. Many of these activities were planned in the GAA Firehouse.
Constructed in the 1850s, 99 Wooster Street served as a firehouse until the 1940s and was sold by the city in 1970. Its facade dates from an 1881-82 redesign by the prolific firehouse architects Napoleon LeBrun & Son.
On June 18, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate the Gay Activists Alliance Firehouse as an individual New York City Landmark, to note its historical importance as home to the GAA from 1971-1974 and an early focal point of LGBTQ activism in the years following the Stonewall uprising.
Image: Gay Activists Alliance Firehouse, via Landmarks Preservation Comission
Designated an individual landmark in 2019 as the Gay Activists Alliance Firehouse, 99 Wooster Street in the SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District has been described as New York City’s “first gay community center.” GAA was founded in December 1969 “to secure basic human rights, dignity, and freedom for all gay people.” It was most prominent in 1971-74, when it used the former firehouse as its headquarters. In addition to containing Alliance offices, the firehouse was an important gathering place where weekly committee meetings, Saturday night dances, and cultural activities were held. GAA produced weekly programs that were broadcast on cable television and published Gay Activist, a monthly newssheet. Many LGBTQ groups met in the building, including Lesbian Feminist Liberation, Gay Youth, Gay Men’s Health Project, and the Catholic group Dignity.
The group’s most famous activist tactic was the “zap,” a direct but non-violent, sometimes humorous, public confrontation with politicians and celebrities intended to promote the cause of gay rights and generate media attention. GAA disrupted many events, organized well-attended marches and demonstrations, and held protests and sit-ins to shape public opinion and government policy. Many of these activities were planned in the GAA Firehouse.
Constructed in the 1850s, 99 Wooster Street served as a firehouse until the 1940s and was sold by the city in 1970. Its facade dates from an 1881-82 redesign by the prolific firehouse architects Napoleon LeBrun & Son.
On June 18, 2019, the Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to designate the Gay Activists Alliance Firehouse as an individual New York City Landmark, to note its historical importance as home to the GAA from 1971-1974 and an early focal point of LGBTQ activism in the years following the Stonewall uprising.
Image: Gay Activists Alliance Firehouse, via Landmarks Preservation Comission
10. Home of the Women’s Liberation Center from 1972 to 1987, another former firehouse located at 243 West 20th Street in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood housed which of the following organizations?
Lesbian Feminist Liberation
Black Lesbian Caucus
Lesbian Lifespace Project
All of the above
The Women’s Liberation Center housed all of these organizations. The most prominent of these groups, Lesbian Feminist Liberation, worked to bring public attention to the discrimination and legal injustices faced by lesbians. The group protested bigoted representations of lesbians, including the national broadcast of the 1974 film Born Innocent, which depicted lesbians in a juvenile detention home solely as perpetrators of violence. Lesbian Feminist Liberation persuaded several corporations to drop their sponsorship of the showing, arguing that its story was “slanderous” to lesbians.
Also housed in the Women’s Liberation Center was the Lesbian Switchboard, a volunteer-staffed telephone service that provided peer counseling, referrals, and information about local events. During a time when the LGBTQ community was frequently stigmatized and forced to remain in the shadows, this service provided much-needed mental health support and a sense of kinship among New York City’s lesbians.
Designed in the Anglo-Italianate style by Charles E. Hartshorn, 243 West 20th Street was completed in 1866 and served as a firehouse until 1967. It was designated an individual landmark on June 18, 2019 in recognition of its significance to LGBTQ history.
Image: The Women’s Liberation Center, via Landmarks Preservation Comission
The Women’s Liberation Center housed all of these organizations. The most prominent of these groups, Lesbian Feminist Liberation, worked to bring public attention to the discrimination and legal injustices faced by lesbians. The group protested bigoted representations of lesbians, including the national broadcast of the 1974 film Born Innocent, which depicted lesbians in a juvenile detention home solely as perpetrators of violence. Lesbian Feminist Liberation persuaded several corporations to drop their sponsorship of the showing, arguing that its story was “slanderous” to lesbians.
Also housed in the Women’s Liberation Center was the Lesbian Switchboard, a volunteer-staffed telephone service that provided peer counseling, referrals, and information about local events. During a time when the LGBTQ community was frequently stigmatized and forced to remain in the shadows, this service provided much-needed mental health support and a sense of kinship among New York City’s lesbians.
Designed in the Anglo-Italianate style by Charles E. Hartshorn, 243 West 20th Street was completed in 1866 and served as a firehouse until 1967. It was designated an individual landmark on June 18, 2019 in recognition of its significance to LGBTQ history.
Image: The Women’s Liberation Center, via Landmarks Preservation Comission
11. What outstanding early photographer’s home on Staten Island is now a museum?
Laura Stirn
Alice Austen
Julia Gardner Tyler
Lucinda Bedell
With unsurpassed views of the Narrows, the Alice Austen House in Rosebank was erected in the first half of the 18th century and later remodeled in the Gothic Revival style. Named by her grandfather “Clear Comfort,” she lived in this picturesque house for about eighty years, from 1867 to 1945. Subsequent scholarship revealed that Austen lived openly at the cottage with her partner of 53 years, Gertrude Tate, from 1917 to 1945. During her lifetime, she produced an estimated 8,000 photographs, including perceptive images of friends, family, and immigrant life.
The Alice Austen House was designated an individual New York City Landmark in May 1969.
Image: Alice Austen, via New York Public Library
With unsurpassed views of the Narrows, the Alice Austen House in Rosebank was erected in the first half of the 18th century and later remodeled in the Gothic Revival style. Named by her grandfather “Clear Comfort,” she lived in this picturesque house for about eighty years, from 1867 to 1945. Subsequent scholarship revealed that Austen lived openly at the cottage with her partner of 53 years, Gertrude Tate, from 1917 to 1945. During her lifetime, she produced an estimated 8,000 photographs, including perceptive images of friends, family, and immigrant life.
The Alice Austen House was designated an individual New York City Landmark in May 1969.
Image: Alice Austen, via New York Public Library
12. The Borough of Queens is home to two separate parades, dedicated to LGBTQ pride and inclusion. Each parade follows a route through separate historic districts. Which historic districts are included in the routes?
The Jackson Heights and Sunnyside Gardens Historic Districts
The Cobble Hill and Greenpoint Historic Districts
The So-Ho Cast Iron and Greenwich Village Historic Districts
The Douglaston and Addisleigh Park Historic Districts
The Jackson Heights and Sunnyside Gardens Historic Districts in Queens are along the routes of both the Queens Pride Parade and the St. Pat’s for All Parade. Launched in 1993, the Queens Pride Parade follows a lavender line down 37th Avenue through the heart of the Jackson Heights Historic District. Its location reflects the long history of Jackson Heights’ LGBTQ community, which dates back to the 1920s. One block north of the parade route, on 35th Avenue within the historic district, is the Community United Methodist Church (F. P. Platt, 1920-23), a key meeting place for Queens LGBTQ groups since the 1970s.
The St. Pat’s for All Parade launched in 2000. At the time, it was the city’s only St. Patrick’s Day Parade allowing LGBTQ New Yorkers to march openly. Stepping off from Skillman Avenue and 43rd Street, it passes alongside and through the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District to the historically Irish American neighborhood of Woodside.
Image: Performers at Queens Pride Parade, 2018, via Wikimedia Commons, author La Guardia and Wagner Archives
The Jackson Heights and Sunnyside Gardens Historic Districts in Queens are along the routes of both the Queens Pride Parade and the St. Pat’s for All Parade. Launched in 1993, the Queens Pride Parade follows a lavender line down 37th Avenue through the heart of the Jackson Heights Historic District. Its location reflects the long history of Jackson Heights’ LGBTQ community, which dates back to the 1920s. One block north of the parade route, on 35th Avenue within the historic district, is the Community United Methodist Church (F. P. Platt, 1920-23), a key meeting place for Queens LGBTQ groups since the 1970s.
The St. Pat’s for All Parade launched in 2000. At the time, it was the city’s only St. Patrick’s Day Parade allowing LGBTQ New Yorkers to march openly. Stepping off from Skillman Avenue and 43rd Street, it passes alongside and through the Sunnyside Gardens Historic District to the historically Irish American neighborhood of Woodside.
Image: Performers at Queens Pride Parade, 2018, via Wikimedia Commons, author La Guardia and Wagner Archives
13. Which historic district was home to the legendary blues singer and actress Ethel Waters in the 1950s?
Upper West Side
Central Harlem—West 130th-132nd Streets
Crown Heights North II
Greenwich Village
Video: Waters’ “Person to Person” interview and the façade of 190 New York, via YouTube
In the mid-1950s, Ethel Waters (1896-1977) lived at 190 New York Avenue in the Crown Heights North II Historic District. Built as a single-family house in 1896, the handsome Colonial Revival-style building had been converted to apartments by that time. Although Waters never publicly acknowledged her sexual orientation fearing the damage it could cause her career, she was a well-known member of Harlem’s community of lesbian performers during the 1920s. Waters started her career on the black vaudeville circuit; soon after moving to Harlem in 1919, she attracted wide acclaim in neighborhood clubs and theaters. During the 1920s, Waters became one of the country’s highest-paid black singers. Her Broadway debut came in 1927, and she appeared at the Cotton Club in the 1930s.
She was the first black performer with a television show, The Ethel Waters Show, which debuted when television was still a novelty, in 1939. During the 1940s, she starred in such films as Cabin in the Sky, Stage Door Canteen, and Pinky, which brought her an Academy Award nomination. Waters was living at 190 New York Avenue by January of 1954, following the close of her Broadway show “At Home with Ethel Waters” and during the declaration of Ethel Waters Day by Mayor Vincent Impellitteri. For his show “Person to Person,” Edward R. Murrow conducted a remote interview with her from the building, zooming in on its facade before cutting to Waters speaking live from her second-floor apartment.
The Crown Heights II Historic District was designated a New York City Landmark on June 28, 2011.
Video: Waters’ “Person to Person” interview and the façade of 190 New York, via YouTube
In the mid-1950s, Ethel Waters (1896-1977) lived at 190 New York Avenue in the Crown Heights North II Historic District. Built as a single-family house in 1896, the handsome Colonial Revival-style building had been converted to apartments by that time. Although Waters never publicly acknowledged her sexual orientation fearing the damage it could cause her career, she was a well-known member of Harlem’s community of lesbian performers during the 1920s. Waters started her career on the black vaudeville circuit; soon after moving to Harlem in 1919, she attracted wide acclaim in neighborhood clubs and theaters. During the 1920s, Waters became one of the country’s highest-paid black singers. Her Broadway debut came in 1927, and she appeared at the Cotton Club in the 1930s.
She was the first black performer with a television show, The Ethel Waters Show, which debuted when television was still a novelty, in 1939. During the 1940s, she starred in such films as Cabin in the Sky, Stage Door Canteen, and Pinky, which brought her an Academy Award nomination. Waters was living at 190 New York Avenue by January of 1954, following the close of her Broadway show “At Home with Ethel Waters” and during the declaration of Ethel Waters Day by Mayor Vincent Impellitteri. For his show “Person to Person,” Edward R. Murrow conducted a remote interview with her from the building, zooming in on its facade before cutting to Waters speaking live from her second-floor apartment.
The Crown Heights II Historic District was designated a New York City Landmark on June 28, 2011.
14. The author of canonical LGBTQ-themed works including Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin frequented the New York Public Library’s 135th Street branch, the home of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, as a child. This library was designated an Individual Landmark in 1981. The most significant surviving building in New York City associated with Baldwin is located in which of the following Historic District?
Central Harlem Historic District
Fort Greene Historic District
Upper West Side/Central Park West Historic District
Park Historic District
Essayist, civil-rights advocate, and pioneering author of LGBTQ-themed fiction James Baldwin (1924-1987) grew up in Harlem and spent time living in Greenwich Village before purchasing a small apartment house at 137 West 71st Street in the Upper West Side/Central Park Historic District in 1965, his New York City home until his death in 1987.
Despite moving to Paris in 1948, Baldwin considered himself a “transatlantic commuter,” traveling back and forth between New York and Paris and staying in the United States for extended periods of time.
The house at 137 West 71st Street was primarily purchased to serve as pied-à-terre and residence for close family members, but also became a gathering place for writers such as Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, and Rosa Guy. Although Baldwin was a leader in writing fiction with gay and bisexual protagonists, it was not until late in life that he spoke openly and publicly about his own sexuality.
Image: James Baldwin Residence, via Landmarks Preservation Comission
Essayist, civil-rights advocate, and pioneering author of LGBTQ-themed fiction James Baldwin (1924-1987) grew up in Harlem and spent time living in Greenwich Village before purchasing a small apartment house at 137 West 71st Street in the Upper West Side/Central Park Historic District in 1965, his New York City home until his death in 1987.
Despite moving to Paris in 1948, Baldwin considered himself a “transatlantic commuter,” traveling back and forth between New York and Paris and staying in the United States for extended periods of time.
The house at 137 West 71st Street was primarily purchased to serve as pied-à-terre and residence for close family members, but also became a gathering place for writers such as Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, and Rosa Guy. Although Baldwin was a leader in writing fiction with gay and bisexual protagonists, it was not until late in life that he spoke openly and publicly about his own sexuality.
Image: James Baldwin Residence, via Landmarks Preservation Comission
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