Stonewall Inn

51 Christopher Street | also 113 7th Avenue South | West Village | built 1915

Open on the map6 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

    A. Voorhis builds a brick livery stable at 51 Christopher Street

    In 1843 A. Voorhis put up a two-story brick stable at No. 51, four bays wide, with a broad carriage opening in the middle. Three years later Mark Spencer, who lived in a mansion nearby, built a private stable next door at No. 53. By 1851 the Jefferson Stables leased both buildings, and that October an advertisement offered a gray horse for sale there.

    Source: Daytonian in Manhattan

  2. 1967

    March

    The Stonewall Inn opens as a gay bar run as a private bottle club

    The bar opened in mid-March 1967 under a license bought from a defunct social club, so it could pass as a private club where members brought their own liquor. In fact it sold watered-down or stolen whiskey and beer at high prices. A doorman screened customers through a small window, and those admitted paid a fee and signed in, often under false names. The front room at No. 51 had the main bar and played rock, while soul music filled the back room at No. 53.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  3. 1969

    June 28

    A crowd rams the Stonewall Inn's door with a parking meter and throws burning trash inside

    After the first prisoners left in the paddy wagon, the angry crowd threw coins and other objects at the officers who stayed behind. Street youths pulled a parking meter from the sidewalk and swung it at the doors, and someone threw burning trash through a broken window. Officers inside put out the flames with an extinguisher and drew their pistols until two fire engines and then the city's riot-control force arrived. For about two hours the crowd kept re-forming behind the police line, and at times a group of gay street youths formed a kickline.

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  4. 1969

    June 28

    Folksinger Dave Van Ronk is dragged into the Stonewall Inn and beaten by police

    Dave Van Ronk had been eating dinner at a neighboring restaurant when he joined the crowd outside the Stonewall Inn. Deputy Inspector Seymour Pine pulled him into the bar, where police punched him nearly unconscious and handcuffed him to a radiator near the door. He was charged with assault, and city records show he later pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of harassment.

    “…dragged from the crowd into the building by police deputy inspector Seymour Pine…”

    Source: Wikipedia

  5. 1969

    Allen Ginsberg visits the Stonewall Inn for the first time and dances with the crowd

    Within days of the raid, Allen Ginsberg met Village Voice reporter Lucian Truscott on Seventh Avenue South and said he wanted to see the place for himself. He realized he had never been inside the Stonewall, and Truscott went in with him. Ginsberg danced with a crowd of young people to music from a stereo that had replaced the jukeboxes wrecked in the raid. Walking home, he remarked that the men there had lost the wounded look gay men had ten years before.

    “Ginsberg “danced with a whole bunch of kids.”…”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

  6. 1987

    A new gay bar named Stonewall opens at No. 51 and closes within three years

    After the original club shut in 1969, the buildings were leased separately, and by 1975 No. 51 held a bagel shop. In 1987 a new gay bar opened there and took the name Stonewall in homage to the building's history; a bagel shop's old sign was refaced to read STONEWALL. The bar closed in October 1989 and the sign came down. A men's clothing store moved in around 1992.

    “In 1987, a new gay bar opened at 51 Christopher Street, and paying tribute to the building's historic importance was named Stonewall.”

    Source: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission

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