Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center

The building was designed in the Italianate style, popular between the 1840s and 1870s, and erected by the City of New York.[1] It was built prior to the Civil War in 1861; however, the date of the building's construction is unconfirmed.[2] It is rumored that Abraham Lincoln once visited the building.[2]

By 1867, it was in operation, known as "Grammar School No. 16 in the Ninth Ward." The city's Board of Education voted to repair the school's heaters that year.[3] It was later called Public School 16.[2]

In 1895, the school garnered a favorable review in Volume 7 of School magazine. The Evening version of the school was described as "most widely sought in this part of the city," in part because people wishing to apply needed either a recommendation from an employer or to bring their parents with them. The author credited the success of the school to Cecil A. Kidd, the school's principal.[4]

By 1884, Kidd was principal of a Public School 184 in New York; as there are multiple P.S. 184s in New York currently, it is unclear which school he transferred to.[5]

In 1921, the condition of the building was poor, described in a civic group's Worst 40 list as having “plumbing wet and foul,” “rooms small, dirty and dingy,” and a need for ventilation “top to bottom.”[2]

In 1938, it became the Food Trades Vocational High School and had 300 students training for various culinary careers including butchers, bakers, cafeteria workers, tea room hostesses, and store clerks.

In 1961, Eleanor Roosevelt visited the school, and it was renamed the Food and Maritime Trades School, allowing 800 students to be enrolled. Its attendees were primarily Black and Puerto Rican.[2]

In December 1983, the New York City Board of Estimates approved the sale of the former Food and Maritime Trades High School, located at 208 West 13th Street, to the Lesbian & Gay Community Services Center, Inc. for $1.5 million. In its first year, 60 groups met regularly at the center. Today, more than 300 groups call the center home.[1]

Programs produced by the center include Center Wellness, an Adult Services Department working with people with AIDS, struggling with substance abuse issues, mental health challenges and much more; Youth Services, an activities-based program for LGBT youth; Center Cultural Programs, presenting established and emerging artists, writers, and activists to the community; Center Families, the center's family project.

The Pat Parker/Vito Russo Center Library is named in honor of individuals who championed LGBT causes in their professional and personal lives. The Center Library is a lending library connected with others around the city, sponsor of a monthly reading group, and producer and/or collaborator for literary events of interest to the LGBT community.[6]

In 1985, the center became the temporary home to the Harvey Milk High School, a program of the Hetrick-Martin Institute. The Lesbian Switchboard became a permanent tenant after it was evicted from its former home, and Dignity, a Catholic gay and lesbian religious organization, sought refuge when it was expelled from Catholic churches.

The availability of meeting space was a major organizing tool for the LGBT movement in the 1980s and early 1990s. Groups that have expanded throughout the nation, such as the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), Queer Nation, Lesbian Avengers, and Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), had their inception at the center. At one point in the early 1990s, the center was hosting regular meetings for more than three hundred groups.[7]