338 East 6th Street | Block : 447 | Lot #25

Description & Building Alterations

This five-story with basement tenement was built in 1864-65 by the heirs of Stephen Whitney, who purchased many properties on this block in 1825. The building is Italianate.

The existing facade features an historic molded iron door hood, arched stone window lintels and sills, and an historic wood door and transom. Part of the bracketed iron cornice is missing.

LGBTQ rights activist Ellen Broidy rented a fifth floor apartment at this building, with her then-partner Linda Rhodes, from about 1967 to 1971. Activist and Rubyfruit Jungle author Rita Mae Brown rented the next-door apartment in the late 1960s. Here, Broidy, Rhodes, and Brown organized meetings with members of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and Radicalesbians to plan their “Lavender Menace” action at the Second Congress to Unite Women in 1970. The GLF also coordinated editorial meetings for the first volumes of the organization’s newsletter, Come Out. GLF and Radicalesbians members Jane Cohen and Liz Wallace also lived in this building during the same period.