LGBT Community Center

214 West 13th Street | also 208 West 13th Street | West Village | built 1925

Open on the map4 entries

The lot about 1940
About 1940. Via 1940s.nyc
The lot about 1985
About 1985. Via 80s.nyc

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

  1. 1843

    Public School No. 17 stands on the western part of the site, built as a Greek temple

    An earlier school, Public School No. 17, was built on the plot west of the present school in 1843 by the Public School Society. The city took over these schools about a decade later. It was three windows wide, with a rusticated entrance floor carrying four two-story columns and a high triangular pediment, like a Greek temple. The plot was later absorbed into the P.S. 16 complex.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  2. 1869

    Public School No. 16 is rebuilt in Italianate style and grows in stages

    The center of the school, five windows wide, dates from about 1869 and had twenty teachers in 1870, according to Valentine's Manual. Projecting end bays with low pediments were added before 1879, and larger rear wings before 1887. A major expansion to the west by 1899 added a one-story building and a new playground, whose rusticated wall continues the school's ground floor.

    “It was erected in about 1869, and had twenty teachers including those for its primary department, according to Valentine's Manual for 1870.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1989

    Fifty works of art are installed in the building to mark the 20th anniversary of Stonewall

    In 1989, fifty works of art were installed in the building to mark the 20th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. The same year, Survivors of Transsexuality Anonymous was established at the Center.

    Source: NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project

  4. 2001

    Francoise Bollack Architects finish restoring the school as a community center

    The firm of Francoise Bollack restored the facade and adapted the old school for use as a community center, work completed in 2001. The two wings were designed by the architect Thomas R. Jackson. A later major renovation was done by RSVP Architecture Studio and N-Plus Architecture and Design.

    Source: NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project

Further reading

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