LGB Heritage Featured Places

Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2021, The Women’s Liberation Center (WLC) in New York is nationally significant as one of the first and most influential women’s advocacy centers, a resource type specific to the 1970s and early 1980s that was of pivotal importance in championing female empowerment and social equity in the United States.

The Baldwin Residence is significant for its association with American author and activist James Baldwin. He owned this house and used it as his primary American home from 1965-1987. Baldwin made important contributions to American literature and social history. As a gay Black author, civil rights activist, and social commentator, he shaped discussions about race and sexuality. He was active in literary, political, and social circles, influencing all of them.

From a place she called Val-Kill, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote books and newspaper columns, served as the first U.S. delegate to the United Nations, chaired the committee that drafted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Val-Kill was a center of her development as activist, humanitarian, diplomat, and one of the most consequential leaders of the twentieth century.

The Lillian Wald Residence, located in the Lower East Side neighborhood of New York City, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2022. The property is significant as the residence and workplace of activist and humanitarian Lillian Wald. Wald is considered the founder of modern-day public health nursing, which she pursued through founding and running the Henry Street Settlement House from 1893 to 1933.

The Lorraine Hansberry residence, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2021, is nationally significant for its association with the pioneering Black lesbian playwright, writer, and activist Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965). Hansberry resided in a third-floor apartment in the building from 1953 to 1960, the period in which she created her most important work, the Raisin in the Sun.

The Pauli Murray Family Home is associated with ground-breaking civil rights activist, lawyer, educator, writer, and Episcopal priest Pauli Murray. Her scholarship and activism are nationally significant in American legal history and the women’s and civil rights movements. She served as a bridge figure between American social movements through her advocacy for both women’s and civil rights.

The Glide Memorial Church in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, California was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2022. The church is historically significant as a space for progressive activism and ministry for the neighborhood’s LGBT, Black, and Asian American communities in the 1960s and 1970s.

Henry Gerber House designated a National Historic Landmark. The Henry Gerber House is nationally significant under NHL Criterion 1 for its strong association with the formation of the Society for Human Rights, the first chartered organization in the United States dedicated to advocating for the rights of homosexuals.

Frances Perkins was by far one of the most important women of her generation. In 1932, her long and distinguished career as a social worker and New York State Industrial Commissioner took an important turn for American women, and for the country as a whole, when she was appointed U.S. Secretary of Labor, the first woman ever to be included in a president's cabinet.

The Congressional Cemetery stands out for its beauty and its famous interments. There are perhaps more early historical figures buried within this unique "American Westminster Abbey" than in any other cemetery in the country. Within the gates of Congressional Cemetery, notable burials serve as touchstones sending visitors back into key episodes of America’s past by memorializing its actors.