A visitor center set to open at the Stonewall National Monument in 2024 will share the history of the Stonewall Inn and its impact on the LGBTQ civil rights movement.

The Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center will open at 51 Christopher St., between Waverly Place and Seventh Avenue South, in “the summer of 2024,” Pride Live, the advocacy organization opening the center, said in a press release. 

A groundbreaking at the 3,700-square-foot site, which is adjacent to the historic Greenwich Village bar itself, will take place on Friday, the release said. 


What You Need To Know

  • The Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center will open in a space adjacent to the Stonewall Inn in 2024

  • The bar was the site of a 1969 uprising sparked by a police raid that served as a watershed moment in the history of the LGBTQ rights movement

  • The center will offer tours, exhibitions and a lecture series focused on Stonewall’s history and LGBTQ history and culture. It will also showcase artwork created by LGBTQ artists

“The opening of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center is a remarkable moment in the history of Stonewall,” Ann Marie Gothard, the president of Pride Live’s board of directors, said in a statement. “We honor all those who came before us, most especially the queer people fighting for equality at the Stonewall Rebellion.”

“The designation as a National Monument and the opening of this visitor center will memorialize their important legacy in the gay rights movement, and we hope will inspire future generations to continue fighting for LGBTQ+ equality,” Gothard added. 

The Stonewall Inn, which sits at 53 Christopher St., was the site of a 1969 uprising sparked by a police raid that served as a watershed moment in the history of the LGBTQ rights movement. 

Then-President Barack Obama designated the bar, the park across from it and the streets and sidewalks around it a national monument in 2016 — a year after the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission deemed the bar an individual landmark

The federal designation made Stonewall the first National Parks Service site focused on LGBTQ history. When the new visitor center opens, it will be “the first LGBTQ+ visitor center within the National Park Service,” Pride Live said in its release. 

In addition to showcasing artwork created by LGBTQ artists, the center will offer tours, exhibitions and a lecture series focused on Stonewall’s history, as well as “LGBTQ+ history and culture,” the release said. 

Funding for the center will come from “donations from the community and allies,” the release noted. 

In a statement, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland called Stonewall’s 2016 national monument designation “an important step in memorializing an invaluable historical landmark that represents courage, hope and triumph for the LGBTQ community.” 

“As President Biden declared in Title VII, ‘Every person should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear,’ and the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center will serve as a place where the LGBTQ community can safely gather to celebrate and commemorate its hard-fought history,” Haaland said.