Take a Self-Guided Tour of New York's Queer History With This New App
Totally glued to your smartphone? No problem. Now, you can use that technology for an interactive lesson in LGBTQ history.
The NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project has joined forces with Vamonde, a U.S.-based travel app, to launch its mobile-friendly collection of self-guided walking tours of queer historic sites in the Big Apple.
Ken Lustbader, co-director of NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project, tells NewNowNext that the app is just the latest iteration of the Project's work to identify and catalog places of queer cultural value in New York. That research spans more than 25 years—and includes playing a part in getting the famed Stonewall Inn listed on the National Register in 1999 and designating the Stonewall National Monument back in 2016.
The Project was formally founded in 2015. Since then, Lustbader—a preservation professional who wrote his graduate thesis on place-based LGBTQ history—and his co-directors, Jay Shockley and Andrew S. Dolkart, have extensively researched hundreds of queer historic spots in the Big Apple, some dating as far back as the 17th century. With WorldPride 2019 and Stonewall50 on the horizon, sponsors like American Express and Con Edison and a Humanities New York Action Grant helped make the Project's collaboration with Vamonde—a pre-existing travel app with all the bells and whistles Lustbader hoped for—a reality.
On the app, users can embark on self-guided walking tours of different LGBTQ-interest landmarks in the five boroughs of New York. The tours (pictured below in the app preview) include contemporary and archival images, historical background information, and cultural context for each site, allowing for an immersive and user-friendly experience. Users can also use filters to narrow their tour options down by cultural significance, neighborhood, era, or specific LGBTQ category.
The app's robust catalog is the culmination of decades of scholarship, Lustbader says, and he's excited to make this work accessible to New Yorkers and the millions of anticipated tourists during WorldPride.
The research is exciting, Lustbader adds, because "it's stuff people don't know. People generally think [the Stonewall riots in 1969] were the beginning of this movement. But Stonewall was actually a key turning point. This history predates Stonewall by decades, if not centuries."
A preview of what the app looks like on a mobile device.
The Project plans to expand its roster of LGBTQ historic sites as the team conducts further research, too. In fact, one team member is currently studying sites in Manhattan's Theater District—and once he's completed his research, the Project will add 24 new locations to that neighborhood's tour.
In a statement, Timothy J. McClimon, president of the American Express Foundation, shared the company's excitement at the prospect of partnering with the Project:
American Express is proud to support the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project. We have a long-standing commitment to helping historic places thrive and are excited to support the legacy of historic and cultural LGBT sites. Through the new mobile app, residents and visitors alike will be able to stay connected to the places that have shaped LGBT history across the city.
Hilary Ayala, Con Edison’s director of Strategic Partnerships, is also proud to "power the NYC LGBT History Sites Project's new walking tour experiences."
"During Pride Month and year-round, these self-guided walking tours will deepen peoples’ connection with important LGBTQ and American history here in New York, and reveal the breadth of LGBTQ peoples’ contributions to the city and our culture," Ayala added.
And Sara Ogger, executive director of Humanities New York, said the group's Action Grant was a great fit to fund the Project's latest endeavor. "The app is the perfect way to tell the story of places whose histories are not readily legible from the street," Ogger said.
