Preserving LGBTQ History
For Pride Month, we wanted to shine a light on how preservationists are working to better preserve and celebrate places related to LGBTQ history. People identifying as LGBTQ+ have long been marginalized and places related to LGBTQ history have often been overlooked. In some cases, places of importance to the LGBTQ community have been recognized for their historic significance (with listing on the National Register, for example), but the queer history has been omitted from the story. Amanda Davis, project manager for the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project gives the example of the Alice Austen House in Staten Island — a site that was successfully reinterpreted to better tell its full story.
From Stonewall to ACT UP, James Baldwin to Madeline Davis, our history is woefully incomplete without recognizing the importance LGBTQ+ people have played in shaping it. The stories we share and the places we save should properly reflect this rich history. In this webinar, Amanda Davis, Preservation Consultant Free Harris, and Historian Jeffrey Iovannone, PhD each talked about their work. Following their presentations they were then joined in conversation with Larry Francer, Associate Director of The Landmark Society of Western New York.
This event was part of the League’s Future of Preservation webinar series. Thank you to our program sponsors, the Peggy N. & Roger G. Gerry Charitable Trust.
Amanda Davis is the project manager of the award-winning New York City LGBT Historic Sites Project, where she has overseen documentation initiatives since the Project's founding in 2015. On behalf of the Project, she has spoken to various audiences at the city, state, and national levels, and also authored the National Register of Historic Places nomination for the Caffe Cino. In 2018, she was named to the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s inaugural 40 Under 40: People Saving Places list, in recognition of her efforts to help tell America’s full history. Amanda previously worked at the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, Architectural Resources Group (in Los Angeles), and the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission. She holds a BA in Architectural History from the University of Virginia and an MS in Historic Preservation from Columbia University.
Jeffrey A. “Free” Harris is an independent historian and preservation consultant who works with historic preservation organizations, historic sites, nonprofit organizations and academic institutions on preservation issues related to diversity and historic site interpretations. Free’s past clients include the National Park Service, Hanbury Preservation Consulting, the Raleigh Historic Development Commission, and Americans Who Tell the Truth.
Free was the first Director for Diversity at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and he completed his coursework and comprehensive examinations toward a PH.D in History at The American University. Free recently was appointed to Virginia’s Board of Historic Resources to a four-year term by the Virginia governor. He also currently serves as the Board Chair of the Rainbow Heritage Network, a national organization that seeks to preserve historic sites related to the history of the LGBT community. He wrote the chapter “’Where We Could Be Ourselves’: African American LGBTQ Historic Places and Why They Matter” for the National Park Service’s LGBTQ Heritage Theme Study.
Free also has served on the Board of Trustees for the DC Preservation League, worked with the Virginia Department of Historic Resources to identify statewide LGBTQ historic places for potential designation, and served as an Adviser to the DC Chapter of the National Organization of Minority Architects.
Dr. Jeff Iovannone is an historian, writer, educator who holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University at Buffalo. He is a Lecturer in History and the Coordinator of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at SUNY Fredonia. Broadly specializing in gender and LGBTQ studies, Iovannone’s specific areas of focus include multiethnic American history, LGBTQ history of the United States, LGBTQ community history, United States social movements, oral history, and public history. He is currently at work on a book about Buffalo’s gay liberation movement entitled Rust to Dreams: Gay Liberation in Buffalo, New York, 1969-1984 and writes a blog series for Preservation Buffalo Niagara called "Gay Places" that documents LGBTQ historic resources in Western New York.
Larry Francer joined the Landmark Society of Western New York as the Associate Director of Preservation in September of 2012 with 20 years of preservation experience, much in small towns and villages. Francer was promoted to Associate Director of The Landmark Society in 2019 as his responsibilities had grown from a strictly preservation focus to a full organizational level. He launched The Landmark Society’s LGBTQ Landmarks Initiative in 2016 to educate the Rochester community about the history of the local LGBTQ Movement and enhance the sense of pride about the place that Rochester occupies in the fight for human rights and dignity throughout our nation’s history. Along with Evelyn Bailey of the Out Alliance and community partners, the group has produced five LGBTQ Historic Walking Tours (one virtual tour) available at www.landmarksociety.org/wnylgbtqsites.