NYC Historians Publish Interactive Map Of LGBT Sites In NYC

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY — A group of historians has debuted an interactive map that marks the hidden, historic LGBT sites throughout New York City. (For more news from Greenwich Village and New York City, sign up for Patch news alerts here.)

The map, produced by the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, is part of the organization's ongoing work to help mark NYC locales important to LGBT history. The project aims to inform New Yorkers of places beyond the Stonewall Inn, one of the most well-known gay monuments in New York City and the first national monument marking the struggle for LGBT rights.

The interactive map, which was first reported by DNA Info, was published last month, but will be formally presented by its creators at a workshop on Tuesday evening. At the presentation, New Yorkers are invited to submit sites of LGBT significance that could potentially be added to the map. The project was started with intense research that helped develop a catalog of sites throughout NYC before it expanded into the interactive map.

The map includes more than 100 sites throughout all five boroughs, with a concentration of landmarks in Greenwich Village and neighboring Manhattan neighborhoods, which have long been a cultural hub for LGBT New Yorkers.

Some of the many Greenwich Village stops include:

• The Bedford Street home of Edna St. Vincent Millay, where the openly-bisexual poet and playwright live for two years in the 1920s.
• The home of Lorraine Hansberry, acclaimed author of "A Raisin in the Sun," and a civil rights and gay rights activist.
• The space at 206 Thompson Street, previously the Italian restaurant Portofino. The eatery, which was open from from 1959 to 1975, served as a meeting place for lesbians. Edith "Edie" Windsor and Thea Clara Spyer met there in 1963. Windsor famously challenged the federal Defense of Marriage Act all the way to the Supreme Court, which overturned DOMA in 2013.

You can explore the map here.

Lead image via Shutterstock.