OLD TOWN — An Old Town house where the first LGBT rights organization was founded has been named a national historic landmark.
The Henry Gerber House, which is already a Chicago landmark, joins the Stonewall Inn in New York City's Greenwich Village as the only other national landmarks associated with the LGBT rights movement.
On Friday, the U.S. secretary of the Interior announced that the Henry Gerber House in the Old Town Triangle had received the landmark status.
The residence, a stone-fronted row house at 1710 N. Crilly Court, contained Gerber's apartment.
Gerber is recognized as the founder of the first American gay civil rights organization, the Society for Human Rights, which sparked a turning point in the history of the LGBT movement in the U.S.
Gerber founded the LGBT rights organization in the home in 1924.
The house served as the society's headquarters and meeting place.
“As we honor the pioneering work of Henry Gerber and the pivotal role this home played in expanding and fighting for equality for all Americans, we help ensure that the quest for LGBT civil rights will be told and remembered for generations to come," said Interior Secretary Sally Jewell.
The Society for Human Rights held lectures at Gerber's Old Town home and published a newsletter that was the earliest documented gay-oriented periodical in the country.
That publication sought to change the minds of legal and political authorities and challenge the national discourse of discrimination against LGBT people.
Gerber served as the society's secretary, wrote the organization's mission statement and filed for its incorporation in the home.
The society was dissolved in 1925 after police arrested Gerber and several other members without warrants. Gerber was taken into custody, and authorities confiscated his properties, including the typewriter on which he composed documents for the society. The organization collapsed.
New York's iconic Stonewall Inn, site of the Stonewall riots in the late 1960s, was named a national landmark a year ago.
"The National Park Service is America's storyteller, and it is important that we tell a complete story of the people and events responsible for building this great nation," Jewell said.
Friday's announcement of the Henry Gerber House distinction was in recognition of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month.
The Gerber House is now one of more than 2,500 properties recognized by the National Historic Landmarks Program.
“The struggles and achievements of Henry Gerber within the walls of this house resonate in the ongoing LGBT civil rights movement,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis.
Jarvis said the National Park Service, which is nearing its centennial in 2016, is seeking to tell a more complete, inclusive and diverse history of the country.
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