Places and Spaces

One of Rainbow History Project’s earliest archiving priorities was creating the Places and Spaces social geography database to document locations of importance to the D.C.-area’s diverse LGBTQ communities. These records include bars and restaurants, other commercial and social gathering spaces, sites where organizations met, cultural and faith-based sites and more.

In 2024, this database was made into a web application called the “RHP Places and Spaces Viewer”! This database lists addresses, descriptions, photos, quotes, and dates of operation and allows users to filter and query the dataset. Some of the sites are still standing, but many have disappeared—making documenting them even more important. Our data on D.C. history told through space begins in the late 19th century and goes through today—over one hundred years of documentation!

Check out the application here!

Interested in seeing some of these places?

Check out our Walking Tours page as well!

Have more information about a place or a new place to add to our dataset?

Contact Delaney (delaney@rainbowhistory.org)