Lesbian Herstory Archives
484 14th Street | Park Slope | built 1908
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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.
- 1908
Axel Hedman designs a row of seven Renaissance Revival houses, including No. 484
Axel Hedman designed 484 14th Street for the Prospect Park West Realty Company, and it was built in 1908 as one of seven houses in a row. The row alternates round and angled projecting bays, and No. 484 has a limestone facade. No. 484 was first built as a two-family dwelling.
“…constructed in 1908 and was constructed as part of a row of seven buildings by the same architect with alternating designs…”
- 1921
A Hungarian-American dentist owns the house from 1921 to 1943
Matilda Levy, a German immigrant, is the earliest recorded owner; she occupied one apartment with her sister and let the other to a salesman of metal goods. Between 1921 and 1943 the house belonged to a dentist of Hungarian descent, whose family and a servant took one apartment while the other went to tenants, among them an insurance salesman and two Danish women working as hospital maids.
“Between 1921 and 1943, a Hungarian-American dentist owned the house; his family and a servant lived in one of the apartments…”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1945
The two-family house is divided into three units
In 1945 the house was changed from housing two families to housing three. By 1950 it held four family groups, including two Syrian American families, one of which owned the building. It stayed a multi-family home until the Lesbian Herstory Archives bought it in December 1991.
- 1991
Ping-pong tournaments and barbecues help the Lesbian Herstory Archives buy the house
After fundraising that began in 1985, the Archives raised about $300,000 for a permanent home, mostly in small gifts collected at ping-pong tournaments, house parties and barbecues. In December 1991 it bought this three-story rowhouse. Until then the collection had been kept in the Upper West Side apartment of cofounder Joan Nestle.
Source: Wikipedia
- 1993
The Archives holds its official opening at its new Park Slope home
After the 1991 purchase, the Archives brought in lesbian carpenters and architects to turn the rowhouse into a headquarters for its collection. The collection moved in during 1992, and the official opening took place in June 1993. By 1995 it held about 10,000 books, ranging from an 1785 volume to mid-20th-century lesbian pulp fiction.
“The LHA hired lesbian carpenters and architects to convert the rowhouse into a headquarters for its collection.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1996
The Archives finishes paying off the mortgage on its home
The Archives completed its mortgage payments on 484 14th Street in 1996, five years after buying the house. The Landmarks Preservation Commission later called the purchase and payoff a major achievement toward having "a home of our own," a permanent base answering the community's long lack of lesbian space.
“The 1991 purchase of 484 14th Street and subsequent completion of mortgage payments in 1996 was, for the Archives, an enormously significant achievement…”
- 2022
Speakers call the Archives a birthright at the landmark hearing
At the Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing on October 25, 2022, six people testified in favor of landmarking the house, and the commission received 34 letters of support. Coordinating committee member Colette Denali Montoya-Sloan called the Archives a lesbian birthright, a place to learn one's own history. She added that anyone may visit and research there.
Source: brownstoner.com
- 2022
The city landmarks the house as Brooklyn's first individual LGBTQ+ landmark
On November 22, 2022, commissioners voted unanimously to landmark 484 14th Street. The house already stood in the Park Slope Historic District, but that 1973 designation came before the Archives arrived, so city records said nothing of its LGBTQ+ significance. The commission said the Archives keeps the country's largest and oldest collection of materials on lesbian history.
Source: brownstoner.com
Further reading
- Lesbian Herstory ArchivesWikipedia
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