The Stonewall Inn, the New York City bar considered to be the birthplace of the modern gay-rights movement in America, could be torn down tomorrow.
The homes of LGBT pioneers Harvey Milk in San Francisco and Frank Kameny in Washington, D.C. could be lost to wrecking balls one day due to the whims of the property owners.
It is a fate many sites of historical importance to the LGBT community in America could face, as few have been protected for posterity.
Despite the fact that all three aforementioned sites have been afforded either local or national designation as being of historical significance, the recognition does not automatically guard them against demolition or significant alteration to the buildings.
“It sounds impressive that it is a National Historic Landmark. But if the owner wanted to demolish it tomorrow, he has the right to go and apply for that,” said Jay Shockley, a staff member for the New York City Landmark Preservation Commission, referring to the Stonewall.
The iconic bar received federal landmark status in 2000, making it the first, and so far only, LGBT site to receive such a designation.
Yet it has not been afforded any specific historical designation by city officials. Shockley, a gay man who in 2011 organized a panel on LGBT historical sites at the annual National Preservation Conference, nominated the Stonewall to be listed last year.
His request was denied because the property at 53 Christopher St. is situated in the Greenwich Village Historic District. He plans to resubmit the Stonewall to be listed separately, which, if approved, would mark a first for the city commission.
“To my chagrin, New York City has not done any specific designation for LGBT reasons,” said Shockley, who has worked for the commission since 1979. Instead, Shockley and his coworkers have been able to document certain historic sites’ connections to the LGBT community. One example was pointing out that a house in a small 10-building East 17th Street/Irving Place Historic District was once the home of celebrated interior designer Elsie de Wolfe and her companion Elisabeth Marbury.
“There are people out there who are trying to have our historic sites preserved,” Shockley said. “I don’t think the recognition of our history and cultural contribution is a minor thing.”
Last November, Kameny’s house was added to the National Register of Historic Places. Its inclusion marked only the second time an LGBT site landed on the list of nearly 80,000 places — the Stonewall was added when it became a national landmark.
“Those are the only two we are aware of,” said Patrick Andrus, a historian with the National Register of Historic Places who reviewed and signed off on the nomination of the Kameny residence.
But the inclusion of the sites on the list is “largely honorary,” noted Mike Litterst, a spokesman for the National Park Service.
“It draws attention to the significance of the site,” he said. “It does not provide any protection for the structure if someone wants to alter it or, God forbid, tear it down.”
Of the 89 National Historic Sites under the auspices of the National Park Service, none were created because of ties to LGBT history. Several do have connections to LGBT Americans, but it is rare for docents to discuss such information with visitors to the sites.
“There are hundreds and hundreds of sites across the country that are listed in historic registers that can be re-interpreted through gay eyes. But they haven’t been and the documentation is not there for why those sites are of LGBT importance,” Shockley said. “There are a lot of historic shrines or houses that had import to our history but are not interpreted as such during the house tours or anywhere else.”
No organized effort There is no organized effort at the national level to pressure the National Park Service to include such LGBT history, according to gay preservationists. Nor is there any organized effort to mark LGBT sites national parks, which would afford them the strongest protection a site can receive.
“There are no gay groups on the national level doing this work,” Shockley said. In 1996, the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park was designated as a national memorial, similar to the Lincoln Memorial and Mount Rushmore. But it remains under the care of the city and a nonprofit group. In the case of Milk’s former house in the Castro, for instance, there is no record of it being recommended for listing on the national register or being granted landmark status. The request must first come from the state Office of Historic Preservation.
In an emailed response to questions, California State Parks spokesman Roy Stearns wrote that, “As of now, there are no California State Historical Landmarks or Points of Interest of LGBT cultural significance.”
Anyone can submit a request to the historic preservation office via its website at http://ohp.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=21747.
The office “would be able to assist with the application process,” wrote Stearns.
According to a spokeswoman for California state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), the author of a law requiring public schools to teach LGBT history, the gay lawmaker hasn’t received any calls related to LGBT cultural sites.
“I suspect as time goes on and scholarship on this topic advances, we will see more of these sites of local importance. We have not reached that point yet,” said Andrus, with the national register.
Even at the local level, there are few cities or states that have given designation to LGBT places. In addition to California, New York and Washington, D.C., there are sites now in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Illinois.
“There are a lot of people who don’t want to call attention to the whole GLBT movement and what has happened, and in particular talking about places,” said Gerry Takano, an architectural preservation consultant and former staff member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
A gay man who now splits residences between the Bay Area and Sonoma County, Takano helped organize the first national conference on LGBT historic preservation, which took place in San Francisco in June 2001.
“The public has a hard time understanding historic preservation and how it relates to understanding people,” Takano said.
Local historic preservation laws mostly have to do with zoning and planning regulations. While they are meant to make it harder for the owners of such properties to alter them, they do not preclude such a possibility from taking place. In addition to Milk’s residence, which was also the site of his camera shop and campaign headquarters, at 573-575 Castro St., there is one other location given city historical status due to its place in LGBT history.
The building at 2362 Market St., now the location of Catch restaurant, was listed in 2004 for being the former home of the Jose Theater and the Names Project, which oversees the AIDS Memorial Quilt.
The city is set to add to the list the Twin Peaks Tavern, the first gay bar to install glass windows. And there is an effort under way to designate a portion of South of Market an LGBTQ social heritage district due to its long history of being home to gay bars and bathhouses.
Takano is part of a group of local residents that is also looking at the possibility of setting aside the Castro as a historical district in an effort to preserve its LGBT significance. They are also examining other LGBT sites in California worthy of protection.
“We hope to link hands with the GLBT History Museum and look at buildings, places and sites here in San Francisco and throughout northern California,” said Takano, who took part in a recent discussion about LGBT historical sites at the Castro museum. “We want to link this globally so we can begin to get GLBT communities to really understand how important it is to rally around the physical place to tell our story.”