Bay Area Reporter :: San Francisco supervisors panel backs Lyon-Martin House landmark ebar.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ebar.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
In light of opposition from the new property owners, San Francisco officials appear set to landmark only a portion of the Noe Valley property where the late lesbian pioneering couple Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin lived for much of their 56-year relationship. Meanwhile, a city open space nearby the property could be renamed in honor of the women.
Preservation groups and LGBTQ historians had sought to see the entire Duncan Street property become a city landmark. They had argued that the adjoining garden plot to the cottage where the women lived should also be included in the landmark because the couple s cremains were interred and scattered on the undeveloped portion. The city s planning department had also recommended the entire property be landmarked.
Due to the cremains of lesbian pioneering couple Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin being interred where they lived in Noe Valley, historians are calling on City Hall to landmark the entire property. It would be the fifth city landmark specifically tied to LGBTQ history, if approved, and the first focused solely on lesbian history.
But the city s preservation advisory body is recommending that only the couple s former two-story cottage located at 651 Duncan Street be designated a city landmark. It saw no need to include the adjoining garden plot where the couple s cremains are located, which has an address of 649 Duncan Street.
An effort to landmark the San Francisco property where beloved lesbian couple Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin lived throughout most of their 54 years together has gained partial backing from the city s preservation advisory body.
LGBTQ leaders and preservationists are seeking landmark status for both the couple s residence and adjoining garden plot, which was revealed this month to be where cremains of Lyon and Martin were interred and scattered. The city planning department had also recommended the entire property be designated as a city landmark.
But the property owners, who claim they were unaware of the historic nature of the property when they purchased it last summer, argued that only the two-story cottage with the address of 651 Duncan Street should be landmarked. They intend to build their own residence on the garden plot, which has the address of 649 Duncan Street, and contend it doesn t warrant being included in the landmark designation.
The members of a San Francisco supervisors panel are recommending that their colleagues start the process to landmark a gay-owned bar in the city s South of Market district.
At its meeting January 25 the supervisors land use and transportation committee unanimously voted 3-0 in support of having the city s historic preservation commission consider if the Eagle Bar, an important entertainment venue located in the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District, should be designated a city landmark. It would be the third gay bar location in San Francisco given such status if approved, and the first LGBTQ city landmark located in SOMA and related to queer leather culture.