Raleigh launches effort to identify, recognize historic sites for local LGBTQ community
City officials are working with a historian to document and preserve Raleigh's LGBTQ history.
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"It’s a segment of the community that we don’t have a history about," said Tania Tully, senior preservation planner for the city. "Not only do we not have any designated historic properties related ot the LGBTQIA+ community, but we also didn’t have any context by which to evaluate any that came forward."
Raleigh's study, which was in the works before the pandemic, will identify potential sites that could be listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
"What’s really important is what happened in the place – whether it’s a house, a bookstore, a club – and to learn that we need to hear from people," Tully said.
"It was really a kind of hidden social network," Geller said of Raleigh's gay community at the time. "You probably wouldn’t even know it existed."
He helped found the LGBT Center of Raleigh in a small office in the warehouse district west of downtown. Several LGBT bars and shops were nearby back then, but Legends nightclub is one of the few that remain today. What used to be Capitol Corral, for example, is now a wine bar.
"In those days, the gay bars were far more important to the community because it was really one of the only places where you could openly go and socialize," Geller said.
"One of the things we are hoping to do with the survey is not just reach the LGBTQIA people who are living in Raleigh now, but hopefully reach people who have perhaps moved away," Tully said.
A final study with recommendations of properties to put on the National Register of Historic Places should be finished by the spring.
"All of these are big steps to becoming a major mainstream part of the city," Geller said. "We always have been, but people were not aware of it. I think it’s about time they became aware of it."
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