The legendary Stonewall Inn, the bar that helped launch the gay liberation movement, has been declared a New York City landmark.
The vote by the historical commission, a kind of gift in time for New York Pride, came after every single speaker at a public hearing supported the designation.
On June 28, 1969, NYPD officers raided the Inn around 1:20 a.m. on the hunt for “bootlegged alcohol” while harassing two hundred patrons and arresting many.
At the time of the raid, the bar, located at 51 and 53 Christopher Street, was owned by the Genovese Mafia. On that warm summer night, the crowd for the first time resisted the cops imposition and rather than simply going with the police officers, many fought back, igniting the Stonewall Riots that quickly spread around the surrounding area of the West Village and came to symbolize the fight for equality under the law.
The Stonewall Inn was already part of the city’s Greenwich Village Historical District and placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999, but city landmark designation was needed to preserve the building and fully honor its significance in the annals of the western world.
