The (Almost) Lost Gay History of Brooklyn

Contents:

• WHO OWNS GAY STREET?
• THE HISTORY OF GREENWICH VILLAGE’S GAY STREET
• GAY STREET
• DEMOLN OF HISTORIC GAY STREET BUILDG PROMPTS PUBLIC OUTCRY
• GAY STREET GHOSTS
• THE NEW AND IMPROVED GAY STREET SIGN IS ALL OVER NYC PRI TWTER
• 5 SPOTS TO CELEBRATE GAY HISTORY NEW YORK
• SERIAL KILLER DOCERI 'LAST CALL' RECKONS WH NYC'S HISTORY OF ANTI-GAY VLENCE
• THE (ALMOST) LOST GAY HISTORY OF BROOKLYN
• JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY

WHO OWNS GAY STREET?

AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTStreetspIn the Village, Another Piece of the Cy’s History Is Comg DownLike other vulnerable landmarks across the cy, the hoe at 14 Gay Street — which helped spire the mil “Wonrful Town” — is beg 1937, when this photograph was taken, 14 Gay Street and s siblg 16 Gay Street were already more than 100 years old. Today, there are only a few such ho left Greenwich Village — built the early 19th century for the merntile class, rather than the Abbott, via The New York Public LibraryOne Monday late November, prervatnists, policians, neighbors and looky-loos gathered at dk on Manhattan’s ty Gay Street, a slim crcent the heart of Greenwich Village, to prott the moln of a nearly 200-year-old hoe there. The place qutn, 14 Gay Street, is one of a clutch of six wsome but prer early 19th-century buildgs on Gay and Christopher Streets that were owned for s by Celte Mart, a sgular character voted to her properti and to the often eccentric st of tenants she Mart died late 2018, at 94, wh no will and no close relativ, so the cy took over her holdgs, sellg 14 Gay Street and s siblgs for about $9 ln to a buyer who flipped them last April to Lnel Nazarian, a 37-year-old veloper, for about $12 ln.

Nazarian has done foundatn work that has stabilized 14 Gay Street and imperiled s neighbors, so the cy has orred s moln, a slow, labor procs that began jt before Thanksgivg. The cy has orred that the work be done by hand and the material saved for e a renstctn overseen by the cy and the Landmarks Prervatn Masuike/The New York TimAll six buildgs are landmarked — Gay Street is the Village’s historic district — but No.

THE HISTORY OF GREENWICH VILLAGE’S GAY STREET

Wh the help of his wife, Ramee, he turned the Gay and Christopher Street buildgs to a plex of furnished stud apartments, rated by Ramee and outfted wh slipvers and curtas sewn by their her short story “Mr. However, she was never the most assiduo steward of the Jeanne Kelly, the former director of fossil preparatns at the Amerin Mm of Natural History and a Gay Street neighbor for two s, put , they were held together wh sp and a prayer, and the haphazard mistratns of a retue of helpers that at one pot clud a super who was bld and a physics teacher wh a number of Ms.

Across the street, Joan Goldberg, a broker wh Brown Harris Stevens, was holdg a quasi-open hoe at 13 Gay Street, a most Greek Revival built around 1840 and owned by Margaret Kunstler, the widow of the civil rights lawyer William Kunstler, who died 1995 and was known for reprentg some ntroversial clients.

”ImageRuth McKenney memorialized her dodgy subterranean apartment 14 Gay Street “My Sister Eileen, ” a llectn of stori about her adventur as a young wrer the cy that was published 1938 and spired the fizzy early 1950s mil “Wonrful Town, ” wh lyrics by Betty Comn and Adolph Green and mic by Leonard days, om the top floor of Ms. Furthermore, the cy is requirg that the moln of 14 Gay Street be done by hand and s material saved for e a renstctn that the cy and the Landmarks Prervatn Commissn will oversee.

GAY STREET

It is lled Gay Street bee the Village had always been a “gay” place the rdials-and-parlor-gam sense of the the time beg — and perhaps forever — Gay Street is now lled by many nam. They appeared a rabow of lors and read ( scendg orr): Lbian Street, Bisexual Street, Trans Street, Queer Street, Intersex Street, Asexual Street, Nonbary Street, Pansexual Street, Two Spir Street and + Street, wh the pl sign signatg any group that might feel ntrast to so much of Greenwich Village, which n feel like a satelle mp of Hedge Fund Universy, Gay Street still retas the character of an old, bohemian left.

Even though there is only a small logo at the bottom of the stallatn, word of the leage has gotten around and triggered an uneass a part of the world already fatigued by rporate terference gay life.

It is bee of the associatns that people who have lived on the block liked to thk about the street relatn to Sydney Howard Gay, the edor of The Natnal Anti-Slavery Standard and a key operative the Unrground Railroad, which some believe might have clud stops on the block. Alternatively, they might have no ia who Sydney Howard Gay actually was and be thkg only about how much they n fortably put on their Masterrd around the rner at Leffot, the home of the $775 Dearborn ankle boot. In this se, might serve the greater good to move past street signs and mount a plaque outlg the street’s seems clear that Gay Street was named for a man named Gay — someone, acrdg to property rerds, livg on the Bowery the late 1700s, someone whose distctns have been lost to the Street is also jt around the rner om the Stonewall Inn, a landmark to the movement for L.

DEMOLN OF HISTORIC GAY STREET BUILDG PROMPTS PUBLIC OUTCRY

Her iend Margaret Kunstler, who no longer liv on Gay Street but still owns the hoe that she shared wh her hband there, would simply prefer to see the Gay Street sign reprted as a rabow. Christopher Park is near Sheridan Square, but was not formerly known as Sheridan we handle rrectnsA versn of this article appears prt on, Sectn MB, Page 3 of the New York edn wh the headle: Who Gets to Lay Claim to Gay Street?. It is bee of this associatn, that people like to assume ’s named after Sydney Howard Gay, the edor of The Natnal Anti-Slavery Standard and a key figure the Unrground Railroad.

Jt around the rner, on Christopher Street, stands the Stonewall Natnal Monument, the se of the legendary rts that changed the world, revolutnizg the gay liberatn movement and leadg to the first Pri para.

GAY STREET GHOSTS

Over the urse of the early 20th century, was a safe haven for New York's LGBTQ muny and home to events—cludg the Stonewall Inn protts—that would bee flash pots for the mastreamg of the gay rights movement all across the remas to this day an important symbol of LGBTQ life New York (photographs of the sign at s tersectn wh Gay Street are tourist souvenir shop stapl), even though 's now more populated wh luxury shops and extravagant gyms than the nightlife hotspots that was once famo for. While the thory did not directly ce gay bars any of s extensive regulatns, police will go on to terpret a le agast nng a "disorrly" tablishment to mean venu equented by gay people. Durg this time, the FBI matas a list of gay Amerins, who will subsequently be targeted by police for an array of illegal activi, cludg habatn and kissg the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, many queer people of lor had been leadg a (relatively) open life the north Manhattan neighborhood—as celebrated gay artist Bce Nugent put : "Nobody was the closet.

THE NEW AND IMPROVED GAY STREET SIGN IS ALL OVER NYC PRI TWTER

In the face of laws barrg gay men om beg seen public together, gay men and drag queens beg to cise the wateront and steal away wh anonymo lovers to the squalid flopho dotted along the P. Proprietors of gay-iendly bars are routely harassed; gay patrons are refed a bid to spotlight this discrimatn, on April 21, 1966 the gay rights group the Mattache Society cis to hold a Sip-.

5 SPOTS TO CELEBRATE GAY HISTORY NEW YORK

Activists hatch a plan to go around bars the Village, and tt out whether they will still receive service after revealg to bartenrs that they are gay—all ont of the half dozen reporters they have ved along for the ri.

The former 1920s speakeasy—which is still around today—is actually an gno gay bar, but the manager is hoots wh the activists and ref them service ont of the reporters.

SERIAL KILLER DOCERI 'LAST CALL' RECKONS WH NYC'S HISTORY OF ANTI-GAY VLENCE

On June 28, a few hundred gay men and lbians march om Christopher Street up Sixth Ave and to Central Park bearg handma banners wh slogans like "Gay Pri" and "Gay is Good.

THE (ALMOST) LOST GAY HISTORY OF BROOKLYN

First opened at 291 Mercer Street 1967, mov to the rner of Christopher and Gay Streets (the etymology of Gay Street's name, cintally, is a total cince) held on Christopher Street for the victims of the Orlando shootg. Cmpley opens fire outsi a li at the rner of Washgton and 10th Streets, woundg two people before movg on to Ramrod, a gay club on Wt Street between 10th and Christopher. By 1982 the term AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) is formally troduced by the Centers for Disease Control and Preventn for the disease that is sweepg through the untry, and cimatg the Village's gay populatn.

Perhaps 's bee of pure enomics—as artists n no longer afford to live there, or maybe LGBTQ people feel safe livg all over the cy now, but Christopher Street and s Village is more gay spir now than actual makp. Sourc: Greenwich Village and how got that way, Terry Miller; Gay Metropolis, Charl Kaiser; The Village: 400 years of beats and bohemians, radils and rogu, John Strsbgh; Love, Christopher Street: Reflectns of New York Cy, Thomas Keh.

The history of NYC nightlife is studd wh the memori of fascatg boît that attracted gays sperate need of nnectn, then ultimately fell away as newer spots and trends emerged.

JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS ASSISTANT COACH KEV MAXEN MAK HISTORY AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY

Kyle: My favore is probably the Nth Circle (a fab Wt 10th Street steakhoe-turned-gay-bar full of leather clon, twks, htlers, and celebry drop-s, all eher cisg, playg pool, dog dgs, or bbg agast each other. Durg the 1920s Gay Street served as a meetg pot for a new group of Knoxvillians head to both disver a new wilrns and blaze trails for a new Natnal Park, the Great Smoky Mountas. For a look to the 100 Block of South Gay Street by the railroad on the north end of Gay Street, jo for a Knoxville Weekend vio featurg KHP’s Jack Neely and Knoxville Urban Guy, Alan Sims, for an affectnate look back at an old classic – Harold’s Deli.