If the real estate industry has a mantra, it’s “location, location, location,” a phrase even those least likely to peruse Zillow have heard many times over. Contrary to popular belief, though, location isn’t everything; there’s another factor that massively plays into a neighborhood’s or building’s value: history. And, though there are a number of important moments—presidential inaugurations, peace treaties, and vaccine developments, to name a few—that have painted the landscape of America’s future, the month of June hits a little differently.
Though Greenwich Village had long been the neighborhood of choice for artists and others who sought a bohemian lifestyle in New York, it was an event that took place in the wee hours of June 28, 1969, in which New York’s queer community made history. Though they came at a high cost, the six-day-long Stonewall Riots became a powerful and intense catalyst for gay rights both in the U.S. and abroad. Another outcome of the revolutionary uprising? A renewed interest in (and everlasting obsession with) New York City’s quaint and charming Village. And today, so many neighborhoods and hangout spots, like the Stonewall Inn, that famously embraced the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) community have become prime real estate for just about everyone—gay or not.
In the wee hours of June 28, 1969, New York’s queer community made history at Greenwich Village’s Stonewall Inn. Though they came at a high cost, the six-day-long Stonewall Riots became a powerful and intense catalyst for gay rights both in the U.S. and abroad. Another outcome of the revolutionary uprising? An everlasting obsession with New York City’s quaint and charming Village. And today, so many neighborhoods and hangout spots, like the Stonewall Inn, that famously embraced the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) community have become prime real estate for just about everyone—gay or not.
New York’s iconic Stonewall Inn.
OlegAlbinskyUntil 1980, sodomy, which was really just the law’s politically correct way to address homosexuality without having to get into it, was as much a Class A misdemeanor in New York as assault or theft, and it was punishable by up to six months in state prison. So the Stonewall Inn, one of the city’s only “secret” gay clubs where dancing was allowed, provided somewhat of a haven for the city’s gay community. That said, the patrons weren’t exactly living freely: The club, which operated illegally without a liquor license, was raided almost weekly.
However, the New York Police Department and the Genoveses, a Mafia family who owned the Stonewall Inn, had an arrangement: The Mafia would pay off the Sixth Police Precinct’s dirty cops, and in return, the police would give the bar owners a heads-up before the raids, giving the Genoveses a few hours to stash the liquor and hide the illegal “sodomites.” On June 28, 1969, though, there was no warning, and officers with guns and batons holstered to their hips stormed the bar, violently hauling out the drag queens, underage runaways, and closeted Wall Streeters and shoving them in police vans. Within minutes, an angry mob of hundreds gathered outside the Christopher Street establishment, ready to fight. The protests lasted six days, making the modest brick structure and its surrounding neighborhood an architectural legend.