Cherry Grove Community House and Theatre | |
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| Location | 180 Bayview Walk, Cherry Grove, New York |
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| Coordinates | 40°39′36″N73°05′26″W / 40.66000°N 73.09056°W Coordinates: 40°39′36″N73°05′26″W / 40.66000°N 73.09056°W |
| Built | 1947 |
| NRHP reference No. | 13000373 |
| Added to NRHP | June 4, 2013 |
The Cherry Grove Community House and Theatre is a historic building in Cherry Grove, New York. It played an important part in the development of Cherry Grove as an LGBT town.
Fire Island is a barrier island off the southern shore of Long Island in New York state. In 1869, the Long Island Rail Road expanded to nearby Patchogue, initiating settlement on Fire Island. Ferries were built to accommodate visitors, and by the early nineteenth century, Fire Island hosted several resorts, including Cherry Grove. By the late 1920s, the island was a popular and welcoming destination for the LGBT community. [1]
Cherry Grove formed a homeowners' association as a de facto government of the unincorporated community. In 1944, this group met at Duffy's Hotel to become the Cherry Grove Property Owners Association, which featured committees on finance, art, the beach, and fire prevention. At a meeting of this group on September 29, 1945, members agreed to a plan to purchase a carriage house to convert to a community house. Following renovations, a meeting on January 25, 1946 established a board of directors, including association president Earl Blackwell. The community house was used for municipal government, including elections. It also hosted social activities, such as religious functions and fairs. Residents donated goods for use in the building. [1]
At a September 1948 board meeting, the Property Owners Association founded an "Artistic Activity Group." This group held theatrical performances at the community house; at the time, live theater was otherwise absent from the island. Saturday night shows became regular to meet demand. Veteran theater performers and directors such as Frank Carrington (founder of the Paper Mill Playhouse), Cheryl Crawford (co-founded the Actors Studio), and novelist Carson McCullers provided creative direction. Broadway and Hollywood actors and actresses such as Peggy Fears, Nancy Walker, and Betty Garde performed at the shows. Another fundraiser in 1948 financed a large addition to the theater. The theater provided a creative haven for the homosexual residents of Cherry Grove and their guests, where productions would openly address homosexual community issues. [1]
The Cherry Grove Theatre is the oldest continually operating gay summer theater in the United States. It was recognized by the National Park Service with a listing on the National Register of Historic Places on June 4, 2013. [1] It is one of only five sites listed because of its association with LGBT history. However, almost 400 other such sites have been identified as candidates. [2]
Washington Grove is a town in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. The population was 555 at the 2010 United States Census. The Washington Grove Historic District was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
Ocean Grove is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) that is part of Neptune Township, in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It had a population of 3,057 at the 2020 United States census. It is located on the Atlantic Ocean's Jersey Shore, between Asbury Park to the north and Bradley Beach to the south. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Ocean Grove is noted for its abundant examples of Victorian architecture and the Great Auditorium, acclaimed as "the state’s most wondrous wooden structure, soaring and sweeping, alive with the sound of music".
Cherry Grove is a hamlet in the Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, New York, United States. It is located on Fire Island, a barrier island separated from the southern side of Long Island by the Great South Bay. The hamlet has approximately 300 houses on 41 acres (170,000 m2), a summer seasonal population of 2,000 and a year-round population of 15.
Lakeview, also spelled Lake View, is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, Illinois. Lakeview is located in the city's North Side. It is bordered by West Diversey Parkway on the south, West Irving Park Road on the north, North Ravenswood Avenue on the west, and the shore of Lake Michigan on the east. The Uptown community area is to Lakeview's north, Lincoln Square to its northwest, North Center to its west, and Lincoln Park to its south. The 2020 population of Lakeview was 103,050 residents, making it the second largest of the Chicago community areas by population.
In American theater, summer-stock theater is a theater that presents stage productions only in the summer. The name combines the season with the tradition of staging shows by a resident company, reusing stock scenery and costumes. Summer stock theaters frequently take advantage of seasonal weather by having their productions outdoors, under tents set up temporarily for their use, or in barns.
Fire Island is the large center island of the outer barrier islands parallel to the South Shore of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York.
Fire Island Pines is a hamlet in the Town of Brookhaven, Suffolk County, New York, United States. It is located on Fire Island, a barrier island separated from the southern side of Long Island by the Great South Bay.
The Woodstock Opera House is a historical venue for performing arts and receptions located in Woodstock, Illinois. It was built in 1889 and designed as a multi-use facility with space for city administration offices as well as police and fire departments. The building was planned by architect Smith Hoag and built by contractor Simon Brink for a cost of $25,000. Today, the City of Woodstock still owns the building, but the building is used exclusively as a performance space.
Mount Tabor is an unincorporated community and census-designated place established as a self-governing Methodist camp meeting in what is now Parsippany–Troy Hills, in Morris County, New Jersey, United States.
Double Edge Theatre, an artist-run organization, was founded in 1982 by Stacy Klein. The company applies vigorous physical training and the principle of an artist's autonomy to create work in an ensemble setting intimately woven with the community. Double Edge's name in part comes from the double-edged axe known as the labrys, which was used in Bacchic sacrifices in ancient Greek cult-worship. Double Edge's first production, Rites, was based on Euripides's The Bacchae.
The Springer Opera House is a historic theater at 103 Tenth Street in Downtown Columbus, Georgia. First opened February 21, 1871, the theater was named the State Theatre of Georgia by Governor Jimmy Carter for its 100th anniversary season, a designation made permanent by the 1992 state legislature. The Springer has hosted legendary performers such as Edwin Booth, Oscar Wilde, Ethel Barrymore, Agnes de Mille, and bandleader John Philip Sousa. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and named a National Historic Landmark in 1978 for its architecture and state of preservation.
Cranbury is a neighborhood or section in the northeast corner of the city of Norwalk in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States.
Salvatore Francis Martin Piro was an American actor who was the president of The Rocky Horror Picture Show Fan Club, a position he held from 1977 until his death.
The Ramsdell Theatre is a historic playhouse theater building and opera house at 101 Maple Street in downtown Manistee, Michigan. The building was financed by local businessman and politician Thomas Jefferson Ramsdell and was built in 1902. It replaced the town's two previous opera houses which had been destroyed by fire, one in 1882 and the other in 1900. Besides producing plays the facility was later used as a movie theater. James Earl Jones started his acting career at the theater as an actor and stage manager.
Buttonwood Beach Historic District is a historic district bounded by Brush Neck Cove, Greenwich Bay, Cooper and Promenade Avenues in Warwick, Rhode Island. Buttonwood Beach is a bucolic neighborhood on the eastern limb of the Nausauket neck, located in the West Bay area of Warwick, Rhode Island. Buttonwoods is delimited by Nausauket and Apponaug to the west, Buttonwoods Cove to the north, Greenwich Bay to the south and Oakland Beach to the east. Buttonwood Beach was founded as a summer colony in 1871 by the Rev. Moses Bixby of Providence's Cranston Street Baptist Church, who was looking for a place to establish a summer colony by the shore for his congregation. He envisioned a community that would be similar to Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard, where the Methodists established a summer campground in 1835. Today, this coastal neighborhood on Greenwich Bay is home to people from many different religious backgrounds.
The Boyd Theatre was a 1920s era movie palace in Center City Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It operated as a movie theater for 74 years, operating under the name Sameric as part of the United Artists theater chain, before closing in 2002. The theater was the last of its kind in downtown Philadelphia, a remnant of an era of theaters and movie palaces that stretched along Market and Chestnut Streets. The Boyd's auditorium was demolished in the Spring of 2015 by its current owner Pearl Properties, which plans to replace it with a 24 story residential tower.
New York state, a state in the northeastern United States, has one of the largest and the most prominent LGBTQ populations in the world. Brian Silverman, the author of Frommer's New York City from $90 a Day, wrote that New York City has "one of the world's largest, loudest, and most powerful" LGBT communities", and "Gay and lesbian culture is as much a part of New York's basic identity as yellow cabs, high-rises, and Broadway theatre". LGBT travel guide Queer in the World states, "The fabulosity of Gay New York is unrivaled on Earth, and queer culture seeps into every corner of its five boroughs". LGBT Americans in New York City constitute by significant margins the largest self-identifying lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities in the United States, and the 1969 Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village are widely considered to be the genesis of the modern gay rights movement.
The Goat Farm Arts Center is a visual and performing arts center located in West Midtown, Atlanta, Georgia. The center is housed in a 19th-century complex of industrial buildings and contains the studio space of over 300 artists. Goat Farm hosts music concerts, traditional and experimental theatrical performances, film screenings, contemporary dance performances, art exhibitions, artist residency programs, and professional ballet and contemporary dance classes. It is also home to resident performance companies gloATL, Saiah Theater, and The Collective Project.
The Lakewood Theater is a theater complex at 76 Theatre Road in Madison, Maine, on the shores of Lake Wesserunsett. Founded in 1898 but only properly developed in 1901, it is one of the oldest summer theaters in the United States. The theater was in the 1920s and 1930s one of the major off-Broadway stops, and now plays host the community theater productions of Curtain Up Enterprises. The main auditorium is located on a former 1882 religious camp meeting sanctuary that was extensively altered in 1925-26 to accommodate the theater. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.
The Carrington House is a bungalow located in the hamlet of Cherry Grove, New York. Built around 1912, it was one of the first buildings in Cherry Grove and constructed for Frederick Marquet. It is typical of early buildings on Fire Island. It was acquired by theater director Frank Carrington in 1927, who enlarged the house. Under his ownership, the house was a popular refuge for LGBT artists like Truman Capote; Breakfast at Tiffany's was written there.
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