Columbus' historic LGBTQ+ landmarks offer meaningful experiences year-round, but during Pride Month, visiting these sites takes on even deeper significance. It’s a powerful time to honor the queer elders who helped pave the way. For those who appreciate LGBTQ+ history, this is the perfect moment to gather your chosen family and explore the places that shaped the city's vibrant queer legacy.
Columbus Pride March 1991, Stonewall Union Records, MSS 1150 AV
Ohio History Connection
Before they’re massive institutions, many museums and archives start in everyday people’s homes and offices. Sometimes, their origins are as simple as a member of a community wanting to save items that were meaningful to that community’s history. Ohio’s LGBTQ+ history was like that—spread out all over the state in small collections held by individuals, colleges, small historical societies, and more—so in 2005, the Ohio History Connection in Columbus partnered with Outlook Media, an LGBTQ+ magazine that ran from 1995 to 2017, and created the Gay Ohio History Initiative, or GOHI.
In partnering with these dedicated community historians, Ohio History Connection has been able to build a queer Ohio archive in Columbus with many items from the ‘80s and ‘90s, as well as work with other organizations outside of the city to preserve and maintain their own collections of LGBTQ+ Ohio history. That includes a robust archive of oral histories that you can check out online, as well as the digitized collection.
Pro tip: If you’re diving into a research project, check out these tips before you go. If there’s something specific you want to see or research, call in advance to ensure one of the archivists will be around to assist you, since not every item is on view all the time.
Summit Station Historical Marker
One of GOHI's projects is erecting LGBTQ+ historical markers throughout the state, and there’s one of particular note in Columbus.
Before it closed in 2008, Summit Station had been Columbus’s longest-running lesbian bar, going strong for nearly 40 years. The space was welcoming to all and the acceptance and support people found within its walls convinced them to move to Columbus or stay in town rather than fleeing to places like NYC or San Francisco.
In addition to being a place where women, trans, and gender nonconforming people could find community, love, and acceptance over a cold beer or cocktail and a dance, Summit Station was a site of activism. Spurred by owner Petie Brown, the regulars organized fundraisers for people affected by HIV, blood drives during the AIDS epidemic, fundraisers for women’s sports and LGBTQ+ community groups and programming, and more.
Find the historical marker at 2210 Summit St. in front of what is now The Summit Music Hall.
Miss Drag Ohio, 1972, Columbus Historical Society
Columbus Historical Society
While Ohio History Connection covers the entire state’s LGBTQ+ history, the local Columbus Historical Society has its own collection of city-specific queer artifacts. The oldest items date back to the early 1970s and range from clothing like ACT UP t-shirts to activist pins and buttons, and printed items like posters, magazines, and newsletters advertising LGBTQ+ events, like drag balls.
Queer history buffs will appreciate the Columbus Historical Society finding aid, so you can get a sense of what’s in the collection. Since hours are by appointment, call ahead of your visit.
Pater Noster House
Recently saved from demolition thanks to Columbus Landmarks and the Ohio History Center, the Pater Noster House is set to receive a historic marker for its role in the AIDS epidemic. Built in 1900, the Greek Revival-style house had many uses over the decades, including as a photography studio, a Bible school, a funeral home, apartments, an antique mall, and, for a time, housed the neighborhood history center, Hilltop Historical Society. But at the height of the AIDS epidemic, the home was an HIV/AIDS center that provided support to those suffering and was used as a hospice in their final hours when traditional hospitals refused to help ease the pain of the disease.
In 1990, student journalist Therese Frare came to the Pater Noster House as a volunteer and was asked to take pictures of the Kirby family saying their final goodbyes to their beloved David. The photo that resulted shows David Kirby staring off into the great beyond, meeting death, as his family weeps at his bedside—a photo that was printed in countless newspapers, magazines, and TV programs around the world and shared in LIFE Magazine. That photo has since been called “The Photo That Changed the Face of AIDS” and has been used to raise awareness and funds for HIV/AIDS patients.
While the historic marker hasn’t been placed yet and the building isn’t open to the public, you can see it in person at 2456 W Broad St, Columbus, OH 43204.
Slammers
Slammers
Living history is just as important as places of yore. In the wake of the lesbian bar Summit Station closing in 2008, Slammers, a lesbian bar that opened in 1993 and is still going strong, is the place to be. One of an estimated 21 lesbian-specific bars left in the United States, Columbus is lucky to have it.
Check out the profile on Slammers in Experience Columbus for more info on the bar’s history. Pro tip: Try the pickle pie—Slammers is famous for their pizza.
Queer / Modern at the Columbus Museum of Art
Throughout history, queer people have contributed countless works of art across many mediums. Our city is fortunate to have a gallery in the Columbus Museum of Art dedicated to LGBTQ+ artists from the early 20th century, so viewers can experience the queer art in the decades leading up to and around the Stonewall Riots. Mostly composed of paintings, the Queer / Modern gallery features works across artistic genres and movements from surreal to abstract, from World War I to the 1960s and beyond. Stop by the museum at 480 East Broad Street, Columbus, OH 43215 and head to Gallery 6 in the Ross Wing on the Upper Level.
Pro tip: The Columbus Museum of Art is open Tuesday through Sunday, but there’s free admission on Sundays.
Stonewall Columbus. Source: Alysse Dalessandro for Experience Columbus.
Stonewall Columbus
And last but not least, the city’s LGBTQ+ community center, Stonewall Columbus. Founded in 1981, it’s one of the oldest queer community centers in the U.S. and is a big reason why Columbus is one of the most queer-friendly cities in the country. Stonewall Columbus is the reason why our city held its first Pride parade in 1981 and the organization has only grown in its 40+ years of existence. Read our article, Behind the Buzz with Stonewall Columbus to learn more.
Today, you can visit Stonewall Columbus at 1160 N. High Street Columbus, Ohio 43201 to see their rotating gallery of queer art, check out queer community events, and learn more about the city’s queer history.
Day Trips
If you’re up for a day trip, check out the Ohio Lesbian Archives in Cincinnati, Ohio, just two hours south of Columbus. The archive is located in the eCenter at Washington Park at 1308 Race St., Cincinnati, OH 45202. Or if you’d like to explore Northeast Ohio, check out the Western Reserve Historical Society’s LGBTQ archives in Cleveland, just two hours north of Columbus.
