Tag Archives: landmark

FINALLY: The Stonewall Inn Gets Historical Landmark Status – #PRIDE

Stonewall Bar

 

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission voted unanimously today to designate the Stonewall Inn as a historical landmark.

“New York City’s greatness lies in its inclusivity and diversity,” Landmarks Preservation Commission Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan said. “The events at Stonewall were a turning point in the LGBT rights movement and in the history of our nation. This building is a symbol of a time when LGBT New Yorkers took a stand and vowed that they would no longer live in the shadows, standing up for the equal rights of all New Yorkers. I am proud that the Commission has designated this very special site as an individual landmark and that we have officially recognized the significance of the Stonewall Inn to the history of our city.”

The two buildings that comprised the Stonewall Inn were originally built in the 1840s as stables, and in 1930 were merged at the first story and given a unified faade. Their combined ground floor commercial space originally housed a bakery, and in 1934 it was taken over by the Stonewall Inn Restaurant. It is essential to remove bats in the attic or on commercial buildings. Bat guano is the technical name for bat feces, which is high toxic if inhaled due to the histoplasmosis spores. All North Carolina bat species have toxic bat droppings that should always be cleaned out of an attic. The worst things that can be used to get rid of bats in an attic is bat poison. Contact Triangle Wildlife Removal & Pest Control, Inc. in Raleigh North Carolina for bat control services in Wake County, NC.
The property reopened in 1967 as a gay club, retaining the name Stonewall Inn

“Recognizing and protecting the tremendous historic significance of the Stonewall Inn is incredibly important, long overdue and more than worth the struggle it took to achieve,” Andrew Berman, the executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, said in a statement released after the vote.

To read The REAL History of the Stonewall Riots CLICK HERE

Iconic NYC Gay Bar RAWHIDE To Close – SAVE THE RAWHIDE!

Rawhide

Opened in 1979, the Rawhide in Chelsea is was one of the last of a handful of old-school, unpretentious gay bars left in New York City.  An old motorcycle hangs from chains over a red-felt pool table, a grimy baby doll strapped to its muffler. The ceiling is painted black and a blackout curtian hangs in front of the door to keep the light and prying eyes of 8th Avenue out.  The walls are decorated with Herb Ritts posters of muscle models, Mr. International Leather 1990, and Tom of Finland poses–everywhere Tom of Finland posters.

It has seen generations of gay men pass through its door and lived and mourned its customers who did not survive the AIDS crisis.

It is a survivor. But it won’t be for long. The building that houses it on 8th and 21st in Chelsea was sold a couple of years ago and the new landlord has jacked up the rent, nearly doubling it from $15,000 to $27,000 a month. The Rawhide has officially been evicted. Their last day will be March 31.

Our history is being erased and forgotten.  Gentrification and assimilation is killing us.

Mayoral front-runner Christine Quinn just had this to say about the Rawhide to New York magazine in January:

One of the things I loved about Chelsea is that on Eighth Avenue,  there is the Rawhide bar–not a luxury product. And for many years there  were Latino guys from the neighborhood who had a folding card table  every Friday and Saturday night and played dominoes. And they knew every  guy who walked into the Rawhide, and every guy that walked in the  Rawhide knew them. A leather bar may or may not be the best example,  but it is the type of neighborhood experience we want to be able to  have, what Jane Jacobs called ‘the eyes on the streets’ all watching out  for each other.” 

CLICK HERE to contact Christine Quinn and ask her to back up her words. We have lost so much of our history and landmarks.

The Rawhide must be saved!

Source: Jeremiah's Vanishing New York

NYC Oldest Gay Bar “Julius”, Found Eligible to Become National Historic Landmark

 

The oldest gay bar in New York City, Julius has just been named eligible for State and National Historic registers according to the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation:

Based upon research and a request made by GVSHP, the New York State Historic Preservation Office has determined Julius’ Bar at 159 West 10th Street/188 Waverly Place in Greenwich Village eligible for the State and National Registers of Historic Places (read GVSHP’s nomination HERE, and the State’s finding HERE).

The oldest gay bar in New York, Julius’ was also the site of a groundbreaking gay civil rights action in 1966 which resulted in the end of New York State’s prohibition on serving alcohol to anyone known to be gay. The “sip-in,” in which several members of a gay civil rights organization known as the Mattachine Society went to the bar identifying themselves as ‘homosexuals’ and asked to be served a drink, was based upon the “sit-ins” being staged at segregated lunch counters throughout the South, and was one of the first recorded instances of civil disobedience against anti-gay discrimination. At the time, the New York Times covered the incident referring to the protesters as “sexual deviates.”

Only two places in America are listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places that have connection to the gay civil rights movement — the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village (site of 1969’s Stonewall Riots and considered the birthplace of the modern gay rights movement,
and the Washington D.C. home of Frank Kameny, the co-founder of the Mattachine Society.

If only those walls could talk.

 

Julius’ NYC’s Oldest Gay Landmark Shut Down By The Department of Health

Julius’ the longest-running gay bar in NYC,  at the corner of West 10th Street and Waverly Place was closed by the city’s Department of Health late last week.

Established around 1867 – the same year as the Jacob Ruppert Brewery in the Yorkville neighborhood. Barrels stamped “Jacob Ruppert” are used for tables. Vintage photos of racing horses, boxers and actors are on the wall as well as an image signed by Walter Winchell saying that he loves Julius’.

In the 1950s Julius; was attracting gay patrons. And at the time the New York State Liquor Authority had a rule that ordered bars not to serve liquor to the disorderly, and homosexuals per se were considered “disorderly.” Bartenders would  evict known homosexuals or order them not to face other customers in order to avoid cruising. Despite this, gay men continued to be a large part of the clientele into the early 1960s, and the management of Julius, steadfastly unwilling for it to become a gay bar, continued to harass them until 1966 when members of the New York Chapter of the Mattachine Society staged a “Sip-In” at the bar.

Dick Leitsch, the society’s president, John Timmons and Craig Rodwell planned to draw attention to the practice by identifying themselves as homosexuals before ordering a drink in order to bring court scrutiny to the regulation. The three were going to read from Mattachine stationary “We are homosexuals. We are orderly, we intend to remain orderly, and we are asking for service.”

The three men went to Julius Julius, where a clergyman had been arrested a few days earlier for soliciting sex.  A sign in the window read, “This is a raided premises.” The bartender started preparing them a drink but then put his hand over the glass which was photographed. The New York Times ran a headline the next day “3 Deviates Invite Exclusion by Bars.” The Mattachines then challenged the liquor rule in court and the courts ruled that gays had a right to peacefully assemble, which undercut the previous SLA contention that the presence of gay clientele automatically was grounds for charges of operating a “disorderly” premises. With this right established a new era of licensed, legally operating gay bars began.

By the late 60’s  Julius’ became a full fledged gay bar and embraced it.  It kept its old New york saloon feel sevrving  burgers, booze and beers to mostly an ‘older” clientele and in the 70’s and 80’s older gentlemen would  sometimes buy burgers for younger men. (If you get my drift).  But times changed and Julius’t kept chugging along with a steady gay clientele and to this day the bar still holds a monthly party called Mattachine.

The current owners did not argue that there were problems that needed to be fixed, and said the bar was to have had multiple exterminations over the weekend hoped to re-open after another inspection on Wednesday or later in the week.

 Bars, Book Stores, buildings, so many LGBT landmarks are disappearing and with them our history fades. 

Lets hope that Julius’s gets this current problem under control before we lose another.