Stonewall NM Landscape: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Stonewall National Monument
Killion J and Fielding C. 2026. Stonewall NM Landscape: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Stonewall National Monument. Cultural Landscapes Inventory Report. 976163. National Park Service. NPS Northeast Regional Office, Boston, Massachusetts / CRIS-CL Database
Stonewall National Monument is located in New York City, in the neighborhood of Greenwich Village on the lower west side of Manhattan. The 7.7-acre national monument was established in 2016 for its significance in the area of gay rights, and as the site of protests, collectively known as Stonewall, that occurred between June 28 and July 3, 1969. The property is anchored by the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar at 53 Christopher Street, and Christopher Park, a small urban park across the street. A series of raids at the Stonewall Inn sparked several thousand rioters to protest police actions, leading to clashes that extended into the surrounding narrow streets for several days and nights. The uprising at Stonewall is widely considered to be the single most important event leading to the gay liberation movement and the modern fight for LGBTQ rights in the United States. Christopher Park is open daily to the public, surrounded by brick sidewalks and a restored nineteenth-century wrought iron fence. A brick plaza inside the west half of the park is lined with benches and surrounded by shade trees and beds of shrubs and flowers. Near the center of the space is George Segal’s “Gay Liberation,” a white lacquer sculpture of two women sitting on a bench and two men standing nearby. Amongst the trees and shrubs in the east half of the park is a sculpture of Phillip Henry Sheridan, a Union General in the Civil War, while just outside the park is a flagpole and plaque honoring another Civil War hero, Colonel Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth. The surrounding streetscape features narrow paved streets, sidewalks lined with trees, and multi-story brick and stone buildings, all of which are part of the Greenwich Village Historic District.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Killion, Jeffrey; Fielding, Clelie
- Date of Issue
- 2026
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- NER , STON
- Keywords
- Architecture, Art, bar, Christopher Park, civil rights, Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth, gay liberation movement, gay rights, gay rights movement, Greenwich Village Historic District, lesbian liberation movement, LGBTQ, Literature, National Historic Landmark, New York, Philip Henry Sheridan, plaza, protest, riot, sculpture, Social History, Stonewall Inn, uprising