One of NYC’s oldest gay bars may finally be getting the recognition it deserves!
Back in September the city’s Landmark Preservation Commission (LPC) voted during a public hearing to “calendar” the building that’s home to the bar, meaning a public hearing would be scheduled to discuss the building’s historic significance and taking it one step closer to officially being named a historic landmark.
This past Tuesday, November 15, the hearing was held, where many spoke about why the Greenwich Village bar with rich history should be recognized.
LPC’s director of research Kate Lemos McHale stated, “The Julius’ Bar building is New York City’s most significant site of pre-Stonewall LGBTQ activism,” which garnered the agreement of 11 other speakers, sources reported.
Bar owner Helen Buford added, “As the owner of Julius’, I enthusiastically support the proposed designation of the building as an individual landmark. This historic bar means so much to so many people, and it means so much to me. In addition to the wonderful community that makes Julius’ what it is, I am proud of the role that the bar played in the early days of the LGBTQ rights movement.”
The next step requires the LPC to vote on the bar’s designation at a public meeting set to take place “in the very near future.”
Located at 159 West 10th Street, Julius’ is one of NYC’s oldest gay bars, which opened in 1930 and was a site of protest against laws and regulations that banned service to those who identified as gay or lesbian. On April 21, 1966, three gay men from the NYC Mattachine Society organized a “Sip-In” in which they visited four bars to challenge these regulations. They were refused service at Julius’, marking a critical moment in LGBT history.
“This early gay rights action and the attendant publicity helped to raise awareness of widespread anti-LGBT discrimination and harassment,” reads a plaque fastened outside Julius’ by the Village Preservation and the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project.
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