Stonewall Inn

The story

The building that ignited a civil rights movement was originally a horse stable, built in the 1840s. Four members of the Genovese crime family bought a Christopher Street restaurant in 1967 and reopened it as a gay bar — one of very few in New York City at the time. Because it couldn't obtain a liquor license, Stonewall operated as a private club while paying bribes to police, who raided it anyway. On June 28, 1969, resistance to one such raid sparked the Stonewall riots, giving rise to the modern fight for LGBTQ rights.