U.S. National Monument in Manhattan, New York
Stonewall National Monument
is a 7.7-acre (3.1 ha)
U.S. national monument
in the
West Village
neighborhood of
Greenwich Village
in
Lower Manhattan
,
New York City
.
[2]
The designated area includes the
Stonewall Inn
, the 0.19-acre (0.077 ha) Christopher Park, and nearby streets including
Christopher Street
, the site of the
Stonewall riots
of June 28, 1969, widely regarded as the start of the modern
LGBT rights movement in the United States
.
Stonewall National Monument is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to
LGBT
rights
and
history
. President
Barack Obama
designated it as a national monument on June 24, 2016.
Early history
[
edit
]
Christopher Park entrance, site of the
Gay Liberation Monument
Stonewall National Monument includes and surrounds the 0.19-acre (0.077 ha)
[3]
[4]
Christopher Park (also known as Christopher Street Park), a
park
originally built on a lot that
New Netherland
Director-General
Wouter van Twiller
settled as a
tobacco farm
from 1633 to 1638, when he died. The land was subsequently split up into three different farms.
Trinity Church
's and Elbert Herring's farms were located in the southern part of van Twiller's former farm, and
Sir Peter Warren
's farm was located in the northern portion.
[5]
Because of the unusual street grid that already existed in much of Greenwich Village, the
Commissioners' Plan of 1811
would not quite fit into the pre-existing street grid. This resulted in several
blocks
with oblique angles, as well as many triangular street blocks. The former farms of Christopher Street were split into small lots from 1789 to 1829.
[5]
[6]
: 37
After a subsequent large population increase in the early 19th century, the buildings on Christopher Street were dense with people.
[5]
[6]
: 37
In 1835, the
Great Fire of New York
spread through the area and destroyed many city blocks. The little triangle of land bounded by Christopher, Grove, and
4th Streets
, which was burned down, was condemned and turned into a park.
[5]
[6]
: 37
The new Christopher Street Park, designed by architects
Calvert Vaux
and
Samuel Parsons Jr.
,
[7]
was opened in 1837.
[5]
[6]
: 37
The
Stonewall Inn
, which then consisted simply of two adjacent
stables
, opened across Christopher Street in 1843.
[6]
: 35
The widening of
7th Avenue South
, and the construction of the
IRT Broadway?Seventh Avenue Line
of the
New York City Subway
, effectively split the neighborhood into two pieces, separated by the now-widened avenue. By the 1940s, the area had deteriorated somewhat as people moved away.
[5]
[6]
During the 1950s, the social demographics changed as "
Beat
poets" moved into Greenwich Village.
[8]
: 68?69
Meanwhile, the Stonewall Inn had changed uses; many different restaurants were housed in the inn from the 1930s through 1966.
[6]
: 35
Role in riots and aftermath
[
edit
]
In 1966, the Stonewall Inn Restaurant?which had been located within the inn since the 1950s?closed for renovations due to a fire that devastated the space. The restaurant re-opened as a tavern on March 18, 1967,
[9]
under ownership of the
Genovese crime family
of the
Mafia
.
[10]
: 183
The tavern was breaking rules on the sale of
liquor
, as it had no
liquor license
, but one officer of the
New York City Police Department
(NYPD) was reportedly accepting once-monthly bribes in exchange for allowing the tavern to go unlicensed.
[6]
: 35
[10]
: 185
[11]
: 68
On June 27, 1969, the NYPD conducted a raid on the inn, now operating as a
gay bar
, under the pretense that the inn did not have a liquor license. Riots started in the ensuing days, where thousands of rioters
protested
against the NYPD's raid.
[5]
[6]
: 35?36
The riots solidified the Stonewall Inn's status as a gay icon.
[5]
The park also played a significant role in the riots?people had gathered at the park the morning after the first day of rioting, discussing the events of the previous day.
[11]
: 180
Later years
[
edit
]
The park itself was in dire need of renovation, so in the 1970s, the Friends of Christopher Park, which consisted entirely of volunteers mainly from the surrounding community, was created in order to oversee the park's upkeep. In 1983,
NYC Parks
embarked on a three-year, $130,000 project (equivalent to $397,688 in 2023
[b]
) to rebuild the park to its original condition. Architect Philip Winslow planted new greenery and replaced the park's benches, walkways, light fixtures, and gates.
[5]
In 1992, the
Gay Liberation
statue by
George Segal
was placed in Christopher Park, mirroring a near-identical statue at
Stanford University
.
[5]
[12]
The statue consists of four white figures (two standing men and two seated women) positioned in "natural, easy" poses.
[9]
Non-LGBT-related monuments in the park include two 1936 works that commemorated
American Civil War
fighters: a pole that honors the
Fire Zouaves
, as well as a statue made of bronze that honors Union general
Philip Sheridan
.
[5]
[12]
The park is surrounded by a fence that dates back to at least the late 19th century.
[5]
[12]
In 2023,
Randy Wicker
launched a petition to remove the General
Phil Sheridan
statue from the park because of "Sheridan's massacre of Indigenous people."
[13]
Meanwhile, across the street, the Stonewall Inn had changed hands many times from 1969 to the 1990s, finally resuming the role of a gay bar by the 1990s.
[6]
: 36
Landmark statuses
[
edit
]
Stonewall National Monument sign at the entrance to Christopher Park
![Map](https://maps.wikimedia.org/img/osm-intl,16,a,a,300x200.png?lang=en&domain=en.wikipedia.org&title=Stonewall_National_Monument&revid=1226759127&groups=_437c927404e14cbd5ea5caed5c20424d2cea0a8f)
Map of boundaries
In 1999, David Carter, Andrew Dolkart, Gale Harris, and Jay Shockley researched and wrote the
National Register of Historic Places
(NRHP) report for Stonewall, which was officially sponsored by the
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
. When the listing was designated on June 29, 1999, it included the Stonewall Inn building, Christopher Park, and nearby streets.
[14]
It became the nation's first NRHP listing, out of more than 70,000 listings at the time, dedicated exclusively to LGBT accomplishments.
[15]
That same area was declared a
National Historic Landmark
on February 16, 2000.
[1]
[16]
[17]
On June 23, 2015, the Stonewall Inn became a
New York City designated landmark
,
[18]
[19]
[20]
making it the first city landmark to commemorate an LGBT icon.
[21]
The designation prompted Greenwich Village residents to lobby for the inn and the adjacent park to be labeled a
national monument
.
[22]
Some members of
Manhattan Community Board 2
wrote a letter to the
National Park Service
(NPS) to request such a status for the Stonewall site.
[22]
The GVSHP also supported a national monument designation for the site.
[4]
In 2016,
The Trust for Public Land
helped New York City prepare the property for transfer.
[23]
The Trust for Public Land worked with the NPS and NYC Parks to preserve the Stonewall Inn and recast Christopher Park as the Stonewall National Monument.
[24]
On June 24, 2016, President Obama designated the Stonewall National Monument (video).
On June 24, 2016, President
Barack Obama
officially designated the Stonewall National Monument,
[25]
making it the United States' first national monument designated for an LGBT historic site.
[26]
The dedication ceremony was attended by New York City mayor
Bill de Blasio
; Senator
Kirsten Gillibrand
; Secretary of the Interior
Sally Jewell
; and the Stonewall Inn's owners.
[27]
Some attendees saw the dedication as important because the
Orlando, Florida, nightclub shooting
, which had occurred two weeks prior to the dedication, had claimed the lives of 49 people, many of them gay
Latino Americans
.
[28]
The national monument encompasses a 7.7-acre (3.1 ha) area
[27]
that includes the Stonewall Inn, Christopher Street Park, the block of Christopher Street bordering the park, and segments of some adjacent streets.
[29]
[30]
Only the park was transferred to NPS ownership. The
National Park Foundation
formed a new
nonprofit organization
to raise $2 million
[31]
in funds for a ranger station, visitor center, community activities, and interpretive exhibits for the monument.
[31]
[32]
In October 2017, a
rainbow LGBT flag
was raised on the monument, making it the first officially maintained LGBT flag at a federal monument.
[33]
The LGBT+ rights organization
Pride Live
tried to develop a visitor center for the monument for several years after its designation. Pride Live began negotiating with the owner of the property at 51 Christopher Street in 2019;
[34]
[35]
that building included a vacant storefront that had formerly been part of the inn.
[36]
The building was placed for sale in June 2021,
[34]
[35]
but Pride Live and the property owner ultimately came to an agreement.
[34]
In June 2022, Pride Live announced that it would build the visitor center at 51 Christopher Street.
[36]
[37]
MBB Architects
was hired to design the visitor center, while Local Projects was responsible for designing the exhibits.
[34]
[38]
Pride Live raised $3.2 million for its construction and development and plans to operate the center in cooperation with the NPS. As of February 2024
[update]
, the visitor center is scheduled to open on June 28, 2024.
[39]
See also
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
National Historic Landmarks Program (2008).
"Stonewall"
. National Park Service. Archived from
the original
on February 21, 2009
. Retrieved
June 24,
2016
.
- ^
Tau, Byron (June 24, 2016).
"Obama Designates Stonewall National Monument to LGBT Rights"
.
Wall Street Journal
.
Archived
from the original on June 24, 2016
. Retrieved
June 24,
2016
.
- ^
"Christopher Park : NYC Parks"
.
New York City Department of Parks & Recreation
.
Archived
from the original on August 5, 2016
. Retrieved
June 27,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
Morowitz, Matthew (October 20, 2015).
"Making Christopher Park a National Park"
.
Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation
.
Archived
from the original on April 5, 2016
. Retrieved
June 27,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
"Christopher Park Highlights : NYC Parks"
.
New York City Department of Parks & Recreation
.
Archived
from the original on September 11, 2016
. Retrieved
June 24,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
Alfred Pommer; Eleanor Winters (2011).
Exploring the Original West Village
. The History Press. pp. 35?37.
ISBN
978-1-60949-151-2
.
- ^
"Christopher Park"
.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation
.
Archived
from the original on August 27, 2016
. Retrieved
June 27,
2016
.
- ^
Adam, Barry (1987).
The Rise of a Gay and Lesbian Movement
, G. K. Hall & Co.
ISBN
0-8057-9714-9
- ^
a
b
"Christopher Park Monuments: Gay Liberation"
. New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Archived
from the original on May 28, 2020
. Retrieved
June 24,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
Duberman, Martin (1993).
Stonewall
, Penguin Books.
ISBN
0-525-93602-5
- ^
a
b
Carter, David (2004).
Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution
, St. Martin's Press.
ISBN
0-312-34269-1
- ^
a
b
c
"Christopher Park: Bringing the Community Together"
.
The Village Alliance
. May 11, 2015.
Archived
from the original on August 9, 2016
. Retrieved
June 27,
2016
.
- ^
Damante, Becca.
"Randy Wicker"
.
Out
.
Archived
from the original on October 23, 2023
. Retrieved
November 20,
2023
.
- ^
"National Register of Historic Places Report"
(PDF)
. Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation.
Archived
(PDF)
from the original on September 24, 2015
. Retrieved
October 1,
2014
.
- ^
Dunlap, David W. (June 26, 1999).
"Stonewall, Gay Bar That Made History, Is Made a Landmark"
.
The New York Times
.
Archived
from the original on July 11, 2016
. Retrieved
June 28,
2016
.
- ^
David Carter; Andrew Scott Dolkart; Gale Harris & Jay Shockley (May 27, 1999).
"National Historic Landmark Nomination: Stonewall (Text)"
. National Park Service.
Archived
from the original on February 28, 2021
. Retrieved
June 24,
2016
.
- ^
David Carter; Andrew Scott Dolkart; Gale Harris & Jay Shockley (May 27, 1999).
"National Historic Landmark Nomination: Stonewall (Photos)"
. National Park Service.
Archived
from the original on February 24, 2024
. Retrieved
June 24,
2016
.
- ^
Curbed (June 23, 2015).
"Rejoice, Stonewall Inn Is Officially a New York City Landmark"
.
Curbed NY
.
Archived
from the original on June 24, 2016
. Retrieved
June 25,
2016
.
- ^
Brazee, Christopher D. et al. (June 23, 2015)
Stonewall Inn Designation Report
Archived
November 14, 2019, at the
Wayback Machine
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission
- ^
"New York City Makes Stonewall Inn a Landmark"
.
The New York Times
. June 24, 2015.
Archived
from the original on August 7, 2019
. Retrieved
August 28,
2019
.
- ^
Tcholakian, Danielle (June 23, 2015).
"Stonewall Inn Is Officially a NYC Landmark in 'Unprecedented Move'
"
.
DNAinfo New York
. Archived from
the original
on August 18, 2016
. Retrieved
June 25,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
Rosenberg, Zoe (July 28, 2015).
"NYers Want Christopher Park To Be a National Monument"
.
Curbed NY
.
Archived
from the original on August 11, 2016
. Retrieved
June 25,
2016
.
- ^
"At Stonewall, a new national monument to the struggle for LGBT rights"
.
The Trust for Public Land
.
Archived
from the original on June 30, 2019
. Retrieved
August 8,
2018
.
- ^
Benepe, Adrian (August 18, 2017).
"Whose Parks, Which History? Why Monuments Have Become a National Flashpoint"
.
Huffington Post
.
Archived
from the original on February 24, 2024
. Retrieved
August 8,
2018
.
- ^
"President Obama Designates Stonewall National Monument"
Archived
February 16, 2017, at the
Wayback Machine
(official announcement from White House Press Office; June 24, 2016)
- ^
Orangias, Joe Joe; Simms, Jeannie; French, Sloane (August 4, 2017). "The Cultural Functions and Social Potential of Queer Monuments: A Preliminary Inventory and Analysis".
Journal of Homosexuality
.
65
(6): 705?726.
doi
:
10.1080/00918369.2017.1364106
.
ISSN
0091-8369
.
PMID
28777713
.
S2CID
33573843
.
- ^
a
b
Begley, Sarah (June 27, 2016).
"Officials Celebrate Stonewall Inn's Dedication as National Monument"
.
TIME.com
.
Archived
from the original on June 27, 2016
. Retrieved
June 27,
2016
.
- ^
"Stonewall Inn Dedicated as National Monument to Gay Rights"
. ABC News
. Retrieved
June 27,
2016
.
- ^
Eli Rosenberg (June 24, 2016).
"Stonewall Inn Named National Monument, a First for the Gay Rights Movement"
.
The New York Times
.
Archived
from the original on May 6, 2020
. Retrieved
June 25,
2016
.
- ^
Mallin, Alexander (June 24, 2016).
"Obama Designates Stonewall as First National Monument for LGBT Rights"
.
ABC News
.
Archived
from the original on August 5, 2018
. Retrieved
June 25,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
Karch, Lauren (June 30, 2016).
"National Park Foundation Plans to Raise $2 Million for new Stonewall National Monument ? Non Profit News For Nonprofit Organizations"
.
Non Profit News For Nonprofit Organizations | Nonprofit Quarterly
.
Archived
from the original on October 10, 2016
. Retrieved
July 2,
2016
.
- ^
Nakamura, David; Eilperin, Juliet (June 24, 2016).
"With Stonewall, Obama designates first national monument to gay rights movement"
.
Washington Post
.
Archived
from the original on June 25, 2016
. Retrieved
June 24,
2016
.
- ^
Ziv, Stav (October 5, 2017).
"For the first time ever, an LGBT pride flag will fly on federal land at the Stonewall monument"
.
Newsweek
.
Archived
from the original on September 9, 2019
. Retrieved
October 7,
2017
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Hickman, Matt (June 22, 2022).
"New visitor center at Stonewall National Monument to kick off NYC Pride"
.
The Architect's Newspaper
.
Archived
from the original on February 24, 2024
. Retrieved
February 24,
2024
.
- ^
a
b
Bixby, Scott (June 9, 2021).
"Landlords Squeeze Stonewall Just in Time for Pride"
.
The Daily Beast
.
Archived
from the original on February 23, 2024
. Retrieved
February 24,
2024
.
- ^
a
b
Holpuch, Amanda (June 21, 2022).
"A Stonewall Visitor Center Will Celebrate L.G.B.T.Q. History"
.
The New York Times
.
ISSN
0362-4331
.
Archived
from the original on February 24, 2024
. Retrieved
February 24,
2024
.
- ^
Rajamani, Maya (June 22, 2022).
"Stonewall National Monument visitor center to open in 2024"
.
Spectrum News NY1
.
Archived
from the original on February 24, 2024
. Retrieved
February 24,
2024
.
- ^
Lockwood, Lisa (June 23, 2022).
"Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center Breaks Ground Friday in New York"
.
WWD
.
Archived
from the original on February 24, 2024
. Retrieved
February 24,
2024
.
- ^
"Visitor Center For Stonewall National Monument Will Celebrate LGBTQ+ History"
.
www.nationalparkstraveler.org
.
Archived
from the original on February 23, 2024
. Retrieved
February 23,
2024
.
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