NEW YORK (AP) — It was half of the Stonewall Inn, the gay dive bar where a 1969 police raid became a landmark moment for the LGBTQ+ rights movement.
Yet for much of the 55 years since, there has been little outward indication that 51 Christopher St. was part of that history.
It had housed the Stonewall’s biggest bar and one of the two dance floors that drew its young, diverse crowd. But after raid sparked an uprising and the Stonewall shut down, 51 Christopher St. became a bagel shop, a gay bar briefly again, a clothing store, a nail salon, then vacant space. Its big “STONEWALL INN” sign came down in 1989, a few years before a new version of the tavern opened next door.
Now the community is reclaiming the building and its place in history. It opens as the Stonewall National Monument ‘s visitor center on Friday, the anniversary of the 1969 rebellion that helped reshape LGBTQ+ life in the United States in the ensuing decades.
“Today, if you look around the world, there are millions of people who are celebrating Pride. And it all started in this building,” visitor center senior adviser Mark Segal said recently while showing it to guests.