Kameny, Franklin E., Residence

Style: Colonial Revival
City: Washington, DC

The Dr. Franklin E. Kameny House, at 5020 Cathedral Avenue NW, is a two-story brick Colonial Revival house built in 1955 with a screened porch and a one-car garage. Kameny, fired from the U.S. Army's Map Service in 1957 for being gay, moved into the house in 1962 and lived there for nearly 40 years while co-founding the Mattachine Society of Washington.

the building

Headquarters of a movement. Beyond serving as Kameny's home, the house functioned as a meeting place, archive, informal counseling center, and headquarters for the Mattachine Society, as well as a safe haven for visiting gay and lesbian activists. It was here that Kameny developed the civil rights strategies and tactics that came to define the modern gay rights movement.

the style

The house is a modest Colonial Revival design, notable less for its architecture than for the movement organized within it.

significance

The house is a designated DC Historic Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its association with gay rights pioneer Franklin E. Kameny.

nearby

Bazelon-McGovern House 0.2 mi · Mid-Century Modern · 1957
Glen Hurst 0.7 mi · Queen Anne
Washington Aqueduct 0.8 mi · 1864
Kreeger Museum 0.9 mi · Mid-Century Modern · 1994
Engine Company No. 29 (Palisades Firehouse) 1.1 mi · Colonial Revival · 1925
Castle Gatehouse, Washington Aqueduct 1.5 mi · 1899

All 315 buildings in Washington, DC