Stonewall Inn Given
Historical Landmark Status
[from The New York Times, by David W. Dunlap]
As the setting of an uprising that ignited the Gay civilrights movement 30 years ago, the former Stonewall Inn and the tangle of little streets around it in Greenwich Village have earned a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
Among the 70,000 listings on the National Register, Stonewall becomes the "first such historic site recognizing the national significance and contributions of Lesbians and Gay men," said M. John Berry, assistant secretary of the Department of Interior.
On June 28, 1969, when the police raided the Stonewall Inn on Christopher St., its Gay patrons fought back for the first time. Instead of dispersing, they taunted the police officers and hurled objects at them. The battle for the streets was joined on subsequent nights by hundreds of protesters, "with all the fury of a gay atomic bomb," as The Daily News reported at the time.
In presenting a bronze historical marker on June 21 at a party given by the Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center, Mr. Berry said, "Let it forever be remembered that here-on this spot-men and women stood proud, they stood fast, so that we may be who we are, we may work where we will, live where we choose and love whom our hearts desire."
The Stonewall protesters, outcasts in 1969, were described by President Clinton in a proclamation of Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, issued on June 11, as a "courageous group of citizens" who "resisted harassment and mistreatment."
"Whatever your feelings about the incident, it was an historic episode," said Bernadette Castro, commissioner of the State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. In her role as the state historic preservation officer, she sent the nomination to the National Park Service, part of the Interior Department, which administers the National Register.
"There as no controversy associated with this nomination," Ms. Castro said. "I received not one letter of opposition." But she also said it was important to document the event exhaustively, since it is "highly unusual" to place a site on the National Register after only 30 years.
The National Register listing includes two 19th-century buildings at 51 and 53 Christopher St., where the Stonewall Inn was situated, as well as Christopher Park and seven surrounding streets in which protesters and the police did battle between June 28 and July 3.
Kimberly Stahlman Kearns, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, a sponsor of the National Register nomination, said the listing exemplified a "more inclusive approach to historic preservation that goes beyond recognizing architectural monuments."
An architectural monument, Stonewall is not.
Behind a plain brick-and-stucco facade, the two-story building at No. 51 houses a clothing store, and No. 53 is occupied by the 10-year-old Stonewall Bar, which has no connection to the original inn but which still serves a largely Gay crowd and sells souvenir T-shirts, sweat pants, caps, jackets and rings, all with the Stonewall logo.
