San Francisco supervisors panel backs Lyon-Martin Home landmark

A governing body in San Francisco on Monday approved the landing of the Noe Valley home of the late pioneering lesbian couple Phyllis Lyon and Del Martin. The decision coincided with the observance of the Lesbian Visibility Day.

The Regulators’ Land Use and Transportation Committee unanimously voted 3-0 to recommend that the full board mark the couple’s residence at 651 Duncan Street when they meet on May 4th. It is said to be the city’s first landmark honoring lesbian history.

“I knew and adored them both,” said Aaron Peskin, District 3 supervisor. “I’ve been to your house many, many times. Thank you everyone who helped mark it. Yes, it’s great. “

Peskin and Dean Preston, a member of the District 5 supervisor, jointly support the landmark request. Land Use Committee Chair, District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar, said voting to recommend that the property be classified as a landmark “makes me very, very happy.”

Christina Morris, senior field director of the Los Angeles Office of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, argued in guest editorial the Bay Area Reporter posted online on April 23, “The Board of Supervisors should take this opportunity to review decades of oversight and inequality corrected by recognizing the Lyon-Martin-Haus as a landmark of women’s history in San Francisco and of LGBTQIA + civil rights activism. “

Preservation groups and LGBTQ historians had initially tried to make the entire property on Duncan Street a landmark in the city. They had argued that the garden plot adjacent to the hut where the women lived should also be included in the landmark, as the couple’s cremains were buried and scattered across the vacant part. The city’s planning department had also recommended that the entire property be listed as a historical monument.

Paul McKeown and his wife Meredith Jones-McKeown, who bought the property last summer for $ 2.25 million, argued that the landmark should only include the residence at 651 Duncan Street. They expressed concerns that the land marking of the vacant lot at 649 Duncan Street would affect their ability to build a new home for them and their two young daughters.

The city’s Historic Preservation Commission approved the family in a 6-1 vote in February, recommending that only the Cottage Package become the fifth city landmark, specifically related to LGBTQ history. Not only will it be the first to be exclusively about lesbian history, but it will also be the first LGBTQ landmark to be entirely in a residential area.

Gay District 8 supervisor Rafael Mandelman, who initiated the milestone process at the urging of the community, decided to follow the advice of the Conservation Advisory Board and apply for city landmark status for 651 Duncan Street only. He has also stated that he is open to renaming an urban open space near the property in honor of the women.

At Monday’s hearing, Mandelman named Lyon and Martin “giants of the early LGBTQ rights movement” whose homeland “should be properly recognized and preserved” as a key location in LGBTQ history. Since it was Lesbian Visibility Day, he remarked, “There was no better time to take this step.”

Terry Beswick, executive director of the GLBT Historical Society, which keeps the Lyon and Martin papers in their archives, helped promote the landmark and was involved in talks about the future of the house.

“We cannot exaggerate the cultural and historical importance of the house,” he told the superiors.

Shayne Watson, a lesbian and architectural historian, co-wrote a 2015 LGBTQ heritage survey in San Francisco that recommended making the couple’s home a city landmark. She noted that it would be the first landmark in the western United States to “recognize and affirm lesbian love, simply put”.

The new owners not only support the recognition of the Lyon-Martin-Haus for its historical importance to LGBTQ history, but have also committed to preserving it. They met with local conservationists and leaders of the LGBTQ community about the future use of the house and ways to document the structure for posterity.

The non-profit CyArk, which documents historical objects, is in talks with the friends of the Lyon-Martin-Haus about the use of drones to take pictures of the existing structure both outdoors and indoors and to record interviews with people in the house talk about its historical significance.

The homeowners haven’t ruled out the idea of ​​selling it to a conservation group at some point. One idea that has been circulated is to use it for an artist or activist-in-residence program as it is in a location that is likely to make it impossible to open to the public as a museum. At the hearing on Monday, Jones-McKeown thanked the city guides for advancing the request to mark only 651 Duncan Street.

“We knew nothing about Phyllis and Del when we bought the property. We now had many opportunities to learn more about them and their remarkable lives through Terry and the friends of the Lyon-Martin House,” she said. “We hope this will be an opportunity for many more people to learn more about you and your work.”

Lyon and Martin bought the property in 1955 and tended the vacant area as a garden. The couple, who first met in Seattle in 1952, co-founded the influential Daughters of Bilitis, the first political and social organization for lesbians in the United States. Her home was a meeting point within the city’s lesbian community and the location of various meetings and events.

Lyon died last April at the age of 95. Martin died in 2008 at the age of 87 weeks after the women became the first same-sex couple to legally marry in California in June.

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