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The walks

Five walks, one in each borough, past places that mattered to LGBTQ+ New Yorkers, each with its year. Walking side by side is one of the simplest ways to get to know someone. If you lead one as a mentor, take it wherever your own years in the city went.

New York City’s five boroughs, with five walks An outline of the five boroughs, each walk marked with its place numbers: Manhattan 1 to 3, the Bronx 4 to 6, Queens 7 to 10, Brooklyn 11 to 14, Staten Island 15 to 17. Every place is listed below the map. the Bronx Manhattan Queens Brooklyn Staten Island 1–3 4–6 7–10 11–14 15–17
The places are numbered 1 to 17, walk by walk, and listed below the map by borough.

Map of the walks

New York City’s five boroughs, with seventeen places on five walks

Each walk is a button on the map, marked with its place numbers: Manhattan 1 to 3, the Bronx 4 to 6, Queens 7 to 10, Brooklyn 11 to 14, Staten Island 15 to 17. Choose one to zoom in on its places. The same places are listed in the panel after the map, and again further down by borough.

Seventeen places on five walks, numbered walk by walk.

Places by borough

Lenox Avenue in Harlem in 1938: brownstone stoops, shop signs for a beauty salon and an auto school, a woman walking past.
Lenox Avenue, 1938Berenice Abbott, public domain
The brownstone at 20 East 127th Street in 2009, ivy on its front, a stoop up to the door.
20 East 127th Street, 2009Americasroof, CC BY 3.0

Harlem in 1938, and the house where Langston Hughes lived on the top floor.

Manhattan · Harlem

  1. 1947Langston Hughes Residence. Langston Hughes lived on the top floor from 1947 to 1967.
  2. 1930sApollo Theater. From the 1930s nearly every important Black entertainer played here, many LGBT stars among them. Stormé DeLarverie hosted the Jewel Box Revue here in the 1960s.
  3. 1920s135th Street Branch, New York Public Library. A center of the Harlem Renaissance for Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen and Claude McKay.
Gould Memorial Library in 1904: a domed rotunda behind a columned portico, a path through young gardens.
1904Detroit Publishing Company, public domain
The library in 2018 from the side, its dome above full-grown trees and a street lamp.
2018Fatih Ergun, CC BY-SA 4.0

Gould Memorial Library, built for New York University and now part of Bronx Community College.

the Bronx · University Heights to Morrisania

  1. 1971Gould Memorial Library. The Gay Activists Alliance staged a zap, a surprise protest, at Senator Edmund Muskie here on 14 November 1971.
  2. 1998Bronx Pride March. The first Bronx Pride Parade and Multicultural Festival was held on 11 July 1998.
  3. 1943Mabel Hampton & Lillian Foster Residence. Mabel Hampton, a Harlem Renaissance performer who was later part of the Lesbian Herstory Archives, lived here with Lillian Foster from 1943.
Community United Methodist Church in Jackson Heights in 2019: a stone church with a tall pointed window, trees in bud.
Community United Methodist Church, 2019Noah Bassman, CC BY-SA 4.0

Queens · Jackson Heights

  1. 1989Friend’s Tavern. The oldest gay bar still open in Queens, owned since 1989 by Eddie Valentin and Casimiro Villa.
  2. 1990Justice for Julio March. Julio Rivera was killed in the schoolyard here in 1990 for being gay. The vigil that ended at this corner started the protests that brought New York State’s first gay hate-crime trial.
  3. 1970sCommunity United Methodist Church. A meeting place for LGBT groups from the mid-1970s.
  4. 1993Queens Pride Parade. The first Queens Pride Parade set off here in 1993.
A clapboard house on Willow Street in 1936, its iron-railed stoop, people sitting on the steps.
Willow Street, 1936Berenice Abbott, public domain
The front door of 70 Willow Street in 2018, shuttered windows either side and a stoop between two small trees.
70 Willow Street, 2018Francesca.hyanna19, CC BY-SA 4.0

No. 113 Willow Street, Brooklyn Heights, in 1936, and no. 70, where Truman Capote rented the garden apartment.

Brooklyn · Brooklyn Heights

  1. 1920sHotel St. George. From the 1920s to the 1970s, one of the best-known centers of gay life in Brooklyn.
  2. 1955Oliver Smith & Truman Capote Residence. Truman Capote rented the garden apartment in Oliver Smith’s house from about 1955 to 1965.
  3. 1950sBrooklyn Heights Promenade. From the 1950s through the 1980s, one of the city’s best-known places for men to meet men.
  4. 1971Spencer Memorial Church. The Gay Alliance of Brooklyn organized here from 1971 to 1973.
Clear Comfort, Alice Austen’s house, photographed for the Historic American Buildings Survey: a low white cottage with three gabled dormers behind a lawn.
After 1933Historic American Buildings Survey, public domain
The same house in 2011, ivy along the porch and a mown lawn in front.
2011Blindowlphotography, CC BY-SA 3.0

Clear Comfort in Rosebank, where Alice Austen photographed and lived with Gertrude Tate.

Staten Island · St. George to Rosebank

  1. 1988Staten Island AIDS Task Force. The Task Force opened its first office here in 1988.
  2. 1972Audre Lorde & Frances Clayton Residence. Audre Lorde lived here with Frances Clayton and their two children from 1972 to 1987.
  3. 1897Alice Austen & Gertrude Tate Residence. Alice Austen lived here with Gertrude Tate, her partner of 55 years, and photographed here, including a self-portrait in 1897.

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[email protected] Run and paid for by Rêvasser, a New York clothing brand.