Stonewall 50: A Living History

The Stonewall Inn after it was designated a National Memorial by President Barack Obama in 2016

The Stonewall Inn following the 1969 Stonewall Riots

The building that is now known as the Stonewall Inn was originally constructed as stables between the years 1843 and 1846. The building itself went through many incarnations before it was bought by the Italian Mafia in 1966 and converted into a bar and dance hall catering to the homosexual community in NYC. During the late 1960s, the bar served as the largest establishment in the United States catering specifically to the gay community, particularly in regard for its open dance policy for gay men and lesbians. Throughout these years and leading to the Stonewall Riots in 1969, the Stonewall Inn operated without a liquor license and allowed for “cash transactions” (such as drug sales” within the building’s interior, leading to frequent police raids. Following 1969 and until the 1990s, the building rotated owners and was at times a bagel shop, Chinese restaurant, and shoe store, to name a few of the building’s iterations. Following 1999, the building reopened its doors as a gay bar and nightclub and has undergone several interior and exterior renovations, including being renamed “The Stonewall Inn” in March of 2007. 

The Stonewall Riots and following Pride demonstrations put the Stonewall Inn on the map as the location of the definitive turning point in the fight for LGBTQ+ civil rights in the United States. In recognition of the building’s historical significance, the Inn was named a National Historic Landmark in 2000, and in June 2016 President Barack Obama established the building (and over 7 acres of surrounding land) as a The Stonewall Inn National Monument, cementing the Stonewall Inn as the first LGBTQ+ national monument in the history of the United States.