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The journey in one line
15 stops in United States, Germany, United Kingdom and Uruguay so far. The first rung is 4 of them, and the list keeps growing.
This journey follows organizing that happened in public. A camera shop that doubled as a campaign office. A bar where three men said out loud that they were gay and were refused a drink. A riverbank where the first homosexual emancipation movement began its work in 1897. Every place here has been named by a public body. The National Park Service, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission, San Francisco's Board of Supervisors, Los Angeles City Planning, Historic England, the District of Columbia and the city of Montevideo each decided that something at these addresses was worth protecting. That is the test for joining the list. Community memory is wider than any register, and the register is what can be checked. People come to these places for different reasons. Some are researching. Some are on holiday and walked past. Some grew up on the stories. The list does not ask which. Most of the stops are ordinary looking. A rowhouse in Old Town Chicago. A street intersection in the Tenderloin. A small plaza off a pedestrian passage in Montevideo. The plaque is usually the only sign that anything happened.
For most of the twentieth century this history was deliberately unrecorded. Police kept the lists and nobody else did. Heritage designation reverses a little of that. When Los Angeles named the Black Cat in 2008 it was the first time the city protected a building for its LGBTQ+ history, and the protest there in 1967 stopped being a rumour and became a fact on a municipal record. The same pattern repeats in other countries at other speeds. Historic England listed the Royal Vauxhall Tavern in 2015, the first English building listed partly for this reason. San Francisco designated the Turk and Taylor intersection in 2022 for a riot that had gone almost entirely undocumented at the time. Montevideo built its plaza in 2005, the first in Latin America. Reading the dates in order is part of the point.
There is no set order and no season. Five of the stops are in San Francisco and New York, so those two cities carry the shortest routes. Berlin, London, Montevideo, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington and Fire Island stand on their own. Several places are private homes or working businesses. The Henry Gerber House and the Kameny House are lived in. Julius', Twin Peaks Tavern, the Black Cat and the Royal Vauxhall Tavern are open bars with normal trading hours. The former Gay Activists Alliance firehouse is a private building in SoHo. Cherry Grove is reached by ferry from Sayville and is quiet outside the summer season.
Rungs
- First steps: 4 stops
- The journey: 10 stops
- The long road: 15 stops
This list is open and keeps growing. Reaching a rung is not finishing a culture.
Where it goes
Preparing the map. The order below is the same information.
- 1Stonewall National Monument, New York, United States
- 2Castro Camera and Harvey Milk Residence, San Francisco, United States
- 3Harvey Milk Plaza and the Rainbow Flag, San Francisco, United States
- 4Memorial to the first homosexual emancipation movement, Berlin, Germany
- 5Julius' Bar Building, New York, United States
- 6Former Gay Activists Alliance Firehouse, 99 Wooster Street, New York, United States
- 7Twin Peaks Tavern, San Francisco, United States
- 8Site of the Compton's Cafeteria Riot, Turk and Taylor Streets, San Francisco, United States
- 9Royal Vauxhall Tavern, London, United Kingdom
- 10Plaza de la Diversidad Sexual, Montevideo, Uruguay
- 11The Black Cat, Los Angeles, United States
- 12Henry Gerber House, Chicago, United States
- 13Cherry Grove Community House and Theatre, Cherry Grove, Fire Island, United States
- 14Marsha P. Johnson State Park, Brooklyn, New York, United States
- 15Dr. Franklin E. Kameny House, Washington, DC, United States
15 stops, in order.
The stops, in order
What a visit means here. A visit means having been at the place itself. Where the building is private, the public pavement outside counts. Nothing on this journey asks for entry to a home or for proof of anything.
- 1
Stonewall National Monument
New York, United States
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Photo: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe bar frontage on Christopher Street, with no crowd in shot. A police raid on the Stonewall Inn on 28 June 1969 met open resistance that carried on for several nights. The National Park Service counts the bar, Christopher Park across the street and the surrounding blocks as one monument. Within two years the number of organizing groups in the United States went from around sixty to roughly 2,500.
What counts as a visit
Christopher Park and the streets of the monument are public. The Stonewall Inn is a working bar with its own hours, and entering it is not required.
Access
The park is open ground in Greenwich Village. A separate NPS visitor centre operates nearby with its own hours. Checked 2026-09-16.
Check access · last checked September 16, 2026
- 2
Castro Camera and Harvey Milk Residence
San Francisco, United States
Photo: Billiamwhatcott, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe 573 to 575 Castro Street frontage named in the landmark ordinance. Harvey Milk ran a camera shop at 575 Castro Street from 1973 and lived upstairs. The storefront was also the office for four campaigns for public office, the last of which put him on the Board of Supervisors. San Francisco designated 573 to 575 Castro Street as City Landmark 227 in 2000.
What counts as a visit
The building exterior on Castro Street. The ground floor has held other businesses since, and the flat above is private.
Access
A street frontage on a busy block. The ground floor tenant changes. Checked 2026-09-16.
Check access · last checked September 16, 2026
- 3
Harvey Milk Plaza and the Rainbow Flag
San Francisco, United States
Photo: Pi.1415926535, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe plaza and the flag as they stand at street level. The plaza sits above the Castro Street station and has carried a large rainbow flag since 1997. In September 2024 the Board of Supervisors designated the Rainbow Flag at Harvey Milk Plaza as City Landmark 319 by Ordinance 223-24. It is one of very few landmarks anywhere that protects a flag and its pole rather than a building.
What counts as a visit
The open plaza at Castro and Market Streets, including the flagpole. The station concourse below is separate.
Access
Open street level plaza. A redesign of the plaza has been in planning, so the surroundings may be fenced at times. Checked 2026-09-16.
Check access · last checked September 16, 2026
- 4
Memorial to the first homosexual emancipation movement
Denkmal für die erste homosexuelle Emanzipationsbewegung
Berlin, Germany
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Photo: OTFW, Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe memorial in place on the Magnus-Hirschfeld-Ufer. Magnus Hirschfeld founded the Scientific Humanitarian Committee in Berlin in 1897, the first organization anywhere to campaign for the rights of homosexual people. In 1919 he opened the Institute for Sexual Science on the ground between today's federal chancellery and the Haus der Kulturen der Welt. The memorial stands on the Spree bank named after him, opened in 2017, and the Berlin Mitte district holds the record of its panels.
What counts as a visit
The riverside memorial and its information panels on the Magnus-Hirschfeld-Ufer. The institute building itself was destroyed and its site is across the water.
Access
An open riverside path in Moabit, reachable on foot at any hour. Checked 2026-09-16.
Check access · last checked September 16, 2026
- 5
Julius' Bar Building
New York, United States
Photo: Americasroof at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe corner frontage that the designation describes as largely unchanged since 1966. On 21 April 1966 members of the Mattachine Society of New York sat at this bar, said they were gay and asked to be served. The refusal was photographed and the resulting publicity helped end the practice of closing bars that served gay customers. The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated 159 West 10th Street an individual landmark in December 2022.
What counts as a visit
The building exterior. Julius' is a working bar on the ground floor with its own hours.
Access
A trading bar in Greenwich Village. Hours are set by the business, not by the city. Checked 2026-09-16.
Check access · last checked September 16, 2026
- 6
Former Gay Activists Alliance Firehouse, 99 Wooster Street
New York, United States
Photo: Beyond My Ken, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe firehouse front at 99 Wooster Street. From 1971 the Gay Activists Alliance used this former Engine Company No. 13 firehouse as its headquarters. Sit-ins, picket lines and the confrontational protests the group called zaps were planned here, and Vito Russo ran film nights in the same rooms. An arsonist destroyed the interior in 1974 and the crime was never solved.
What counts as a visit
The building exterior on Wooster Street in SoHo. The interior is private and the Alliance has not used it since 1974.
Access
A private building on a narrow cobbled street. There is no marked visitor entrance. Checked 2026-09-16.
Check access · last checked September 16, 2026
- 7
Twin Peaks Tavern
San Francisco, United States
Photo: Allan Ferguson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe glazed corner frontage that the designation is about. In 1972 the new owners of 401 Castro Street replaced the painted-over front with plate glass, so that anyone inside could be seen from the street. It is widely described as the first gay bar in the United States with open windows. San Francisco initiated its Article 10 landmark designation in 2012 and it became City Landmark 264.
What counts as a visit
The corner building and its windows at Castro and 17th Streets. The bar inside keeps its own hours.
Access
A working bar. The windows that carry the history are visible from the pavement at any time. Checked 2026-09-16.
Check access · last checked September 16, 2026
- 8
Site of the Compton's Cafeteria Riot, Turk and Taylor Streets
San Francisco, United States
Photo: Gaylesf, Public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsThe commemorative marker at the intersection. In August 1966 transgender women and drag queens at Gene Compton's Cafeteria fought back against a police call-out, three years before Stonewall. Almost nothing was written down at the time. In November 2022 the Board of Supervisors adopted Ordinance 246-22 designating the Turk and Taylor Streets intersection as City Landmark 307, naming it the site of the riot.
What counts as a visit
The street intersection itself and the commemorative plaque. The cafeteria is long gone and the building at 101 Taylor Street is in other use.
Access
A working street corner in the Tenderloin where people live and trade. Checked 2026-09-16.
Check access · last checked September 16, 2026
- 9
Royal Vauxhall Tavern
London, United Kingdom
Photo: Ethan Doyle White, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe listed building seen from the street. The tavern was built in the early 1860s on the edge of the former Vauxhall Gardens and has held drag performance since at least the 1940s. In September 2015 it was listed at Grade II, the first building in England listed partly for its significance to LGBTQ+ history rather than architecture alone.
What counts as a visit
The listed building on Kennington Lane. It is a working pub and performance venue with ticketed nights.
Access
Exterior visible at any time. Inside, opening depends on the programme. Historic England list entry 1426984, Grade II, listed 8 September 2015. Checked 2026-09-16.
Check access · last checked September 16, 2026
- 10
Plaza de la Diversidad Sexual
Plaza de la Diversidad Sexual
Montevideo, Uruguay
Photo: Lajmmoore, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe monolith and plaque in the plaza. The city of Montevideo opened this small plaza in the Ciudad Vieja in February 2005, the first public square in Latin America dedicated to sexual diversity. A stone monolith carries a plaque cut as an inverted triangle in pink and black veined marble, referring to the badges forced on prisoners in Nazi camps. Eight community groups proposed it and the Intendencia built it.
What counts as a visit
The open plaza and the monolith in the Pasaje Policía Vieja, between Sarandí and Bartolomé Mitre.
Access
A public square in the old city. It was rebuilt by the Intendencia in recent works, so the surface and planting differ from older photographs. Checked 2026-09-16.
Check access · last checked September 16, 2026
- 11
The Black Cat
Los Angeles, United States
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Photo: joey zanotti from Rancho Palos Verdes, CA, USA, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe monument building and its sign on Sunset Boulevard. Police raided this Sunset Boulevard bar at midnight on New Year's Eve 1966 and arrested customers. On 11 February 1967 a public demonstration outside was one of the first organized protests for gay civil rights in the United States, more than two years before Stonewall. Los Angeles made it Historic-Cultural Monument 939 in November 2008, the first site the city protected for LGBTQ+ history.
What counts as a visit
The Art Deco building at 3909 West Sunset Boulevard. A bar trades there under the same name with its own hours.
Access
A working bar in Silver Lake. City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument 939, effective 7 November 2008. Checked 2026-09-16.
Check access · last checked September 16, 2026
- 12
Henry Gerber House
Chicago, United States
Photo: Thshriver, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe rowhouse front on Crilly Court. Henry Gerber rented a room in this Old Town rowhouse in 1924 and 1925. From it he founded the Society for Human Rights, the first chartered organization in the United States for the rights of homosexual people, wrote its mission statement and filed its incorporation papers. Police raided the room in 1925 and took his typewriter. It became a National Historic Landmark on 21 July 2015.
What counts as a visit
The exterior of 1710 North Crilly Court, seen from the lane. The house is privately owned.
Access
The National Park Service states plainly that the house is not open to the public and is privately managed. Checked 2026-09-16.
Check access · last checked September 16, 2026
- 13
Cherry Grove Community House and Theatre
Cherry Grove, Fire Island, United States
Photo: Leah Fallica, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe listed community house and theatre from the walk. A carriage house floated across the bay in 1946 and a theatre wing added in 1949 became the meeting hall of a summer community that the National Register nomination calls America's first gay and lesbian town. The building holds a 151 seat theatre and was listed on the National Register in 2013 for social history, performing arts, and community planning.
What counts as a visit
The building at 180 Bayview Walk and its theatre when a performance or community event is on.
Access
Cherry Grove has no roads and is reached by ferry from Sayville. The community and its programme run mainly in summer. Checked 2026-09-16.
Seasonal
Check access · last checked September 16, 2026
- 14
Marsha P. Johnson State Park
Brooklyn, New York, United States
Photo: The original uploader was MMZach at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe waterfront lawn and the Manhattan skyline beyond. New York State renamed East River State Park on 1 February 2020 for Marsha P. Johnson, who was present at Stonewall and spent decades organizing in the city. It is the first New York State park named for an LGBTQ+ person and for a transgender woman. The seven acres hold the remains of a nineteenth century shipping dock.
What counts as a visit
The whole park on the Williamsburg waterfront, including the Park House classroom when it is staffed.
Access
Open 7am to 10pm daily. Entry and all public programming are free. Checked 2026-09-16.
Check access · last checked September 16, 2026
- 15
Dr. Franklin E. Kameny House
Washington, DC, United States
Photo: Farragutful, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe Colonial Revival house named in the DC inventory. Frank Kameny was sacked from the Army Map Service in 1957 for being gay and spent four years fighting it in court. From this house at 5020 Cathedral Avenue NW, his home and office from 1962, he co-founded the Mattachine Society of Washington and ran the campaign that made the American Psychiatric Association drop homosexuality from its manual. The District designated the house on 26 February 2009.
What counts as a visit
The exterior of a private house, seen from the public pavement.
Access
A lived-in private residence on a quiet residential street. There is no visitor access. Checked 2026-09-16.
Check access · last checked September 16, 2026
Respect and access
Historic building identification is not a promise of interior access. Several of these addresses are somebody's home. Look from the pavement and do not knock. In the bars, buy something or do not, but treat the room as a room people are using. Photograph the building and the plaque rather than the customers. At the Turk and Taylor intersection you are standing in a neighbourhood where people live and work. Choosing this journey is an interest in history. It records nothing about a person's identity, and neither does a visit.
- Seasonal
- Access follows a season, a calendar or an event rather than being open year round.
Opening times, prices, permits and eligibility change. Nothing on this page is a statement about today. Follow the Check access link on a place before you plan around it.
Sources
- nps.govhttps://www.nps.gov/ston/learn/historyculture.htm · checked September 16, 2026
- nps.govhttps://www.nps.gov/ston/learn/historyculture/gaa.htm · checked September 16, 2026
- nps.govhttps://www.nps.gov/places/henry-gerber-house.htm · checked September 16, 2026
- npgallery.nps.govhttps://npgallery.nps.gov/getasset/cf960e0f-e92e-4f9c-a038-4d38f426a76f/index.htm · checked September 16, 2026
- nyc.govhttps://www.nyc.gov/site/lpc/about/pr2022/lpc-designates-julius-bar-building-as-individual-landmark.page · checked September 16, 2026
- sfplanninggis.orghttps://sfplanninggis.org/docs/landmarks_and_districts/LM227.pdf · checked September 16, 2026
- sfplanning.orghttps://sfplanning.org/sites/default/files/documents/preserv/landmarks_designation/LM319.pdf · checked September 16, 2026
- sfplanninggis.orghttps://sfplanninggis.org/docs/landmarks_and_districts/LM264.pdf · checked September 16, 2026
- sfplanninggis.orghttps://sfplanninggis.org/docs/landmarks_and_districts/LM307.pdf · checked September 16, 2026
- planning.lacity.govhttps://planning.lacity.gov/blog/stonewall-angelenos-demonstrated-lgbtq-rights-black-cat · checked September 16, 2026
- historicengland.org.ukhttps://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1426984 · checked September 16, 2026
- berlin.dehttps://www.berlin.de/kunst-und-kultur-mitte/geschichte/erinnerungskultur/gedenktafel-datenbank/id-217_homosexuelle-emanzipationsbewegung.pdf · checked September 16, 2026
- montevideo.gub.uyhttps://montevideo.gub.uy/areas-tematicas/ciudad-y-urbanismo/urbanismo-feminista/plaza-de-la-diversidad · checked September 16, 2026
- parks.ny.govhttps://parks.ny.gov/visit/state-parks/marsha-p-johnson-state-park-east-river-state-park · checked September 16, 2026
- planning.dc.govhttps://planning.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/op/publication/attachments/Inventory%202009%20K.pdf · checked September 16, 2026
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