San Francisco Launches LGBT Heritage Project – Community Workshop Will Pinpoint Historic Sites
The workshop will bring together community members to share their recollections of places that have been important to their past experiences of LGBT life in San Francisco. “We’re eager to hear from everyone who has participated in the community in any way up through the 1980s,” saysGraves. “Where did you go to house parties? What was your favorite bar or club? Where did you shop for books, music and fabulous clothes? Where did you attend activist meetings or go to cultural events? We are particularly interested in hearing from people with information about sites important to LGBT communities of color, transgender people, the bisexual community and others who are underdocumented in LGBT history,” Graves adds.
The project is expected to take a year to complete, with extensive archival research, further interviews with groups and individuals, and a final community meeting at the end of the study. The outcome will be a formal document known as a historic context statement, which will be distributed publicly and will be used by community history advocates and city planners.
Titled “Remembering LGBT Historic Sites in San Francisco: A Community Workshop,” the initial public presentation and discussion is set for Thursday, November 14, 6:00-7:30 p.m., at the San Francisco Women’s Building, 3543 18th St. in San Francisco. The event is cosponsored by San Francisco Heritage and the San Francisco Women’s Building. Admission is free of charge, and light refreshments will be served.
For more information, contact Watson and Graves at sflgbthistory@gmail.com or visit the “Preserving LGBT Historic Sites” page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/
When: Thursday, Nov. 14, 2013. 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
Where: Audre Lorde Room at the San Francisco Women’s Building, 3543 18th St., San Francisco
Admission: Free
ABOUT HISTORIC CONTEXT STATEMENTS
What is a historic context statement?
A historic context statement is a preservation planning tool used by federal, state and local governments to present information on a historical theme, such as the history of a city, a culture or an architectural style in a given geographical area and chronological period.
How are historic context statements used?
A historic context statement helps community members and public agencies make preservation and historical interpretation decisions about individual properties and historic districts. Preparation of the historic context statement is often followed by a survey that may result in designating landmarks at the local, state or national level. Historic context statements also can provide a foundation for interpretive and educational projects such as walking tours, publications, exhibitions, websites and mobile apps.
What is the focus of the San Francisco LGBT historic context statement?
The overarching theme will be the formation and development of the city’s LGBT communities from their roots in the 19th century through the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. The geographical scope will be citywide. Themes to be addressed will include same-sex social and sexual relations in the 19th century; the influence of 1920s bohemian culture; the establishment of social gathering places in 1933 after the repeal of Prohibition; the effects of World War II; police harassment, bar raids, lawsuits and the consequential formation of gay and lesbian rights organizations in the 1950s; formation and establishment of various LGBT communities in neighborhoods throughout the city; LGBT rights movements in the 1970s; and the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.
Is this the first citywide LGBT historic context statement in the United States?
The San Francisco project and a separate project currently underway in Los Angeles appear to be the first two efforts to produce comprehensive, citywide LGBT historic context statements anywhere in the United States. San Francisco also was the setting for an earlier pioneering effort by the organization Friends of 1800 that produced the 2004 document “Sexing the City,” an LGBT historic context statement covering a shorter period of time and a smaller area within the city. “Sexing the City” is available online as a 23-page PDF: www.friendsof1800.org/context_
ABOUT THE PROJECT DIRECTORS
Donna Graves is a public historian and urban planner with over 20 years experience developing projects that document and interpret underrecognized histories.
Shayne Watson is a San Francisco-based architectural historian and preservation planner who specializes in LGBT heritage conservation as part of her larger preservation practice.
ABOUT THE GLBT HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Founded in 1985, the GLBT Historical Society is an archives and research center often referred to as San Francisco’s “queer Smithsonian.” It houses one of the world’s largest collections of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender historical materials. The society also sponsors The GLBT History Museum in the city’s Castro District — the first full-scale, stand-alone museum of GLBT history and culture in the United States. For more information, visit www.glbthistory.org.
ABOUT THE HISTORIC PRESERVATION FUND COMMITTEE
The San Francisco Historic Preservation Fund Committee is a committee of the City and County of San Francisco that operates under the purview of the Mayor’s Office of Community and Economic Development. For more information, visit the committee’s home page: http://sfgsa.org/index.aspx?
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