Welcome to Cherry Grove, Fire Island, where gay people from around the world have come together for the past eighty years to openly socialize and enjoy a rare freedom of sexual expression in one of the first gay beach towns in America. It was during the 1950s that Cherry Grove provided gay individuals a much-needed escape from the homophobia, the legal and social persecution, and the hate that many experienced during the witch hunt years of the McCarthy era.
Safe/Haven’s archival photographs and ephemera, digitized over the past ten years by the Cherry Grove Archives Collection Committee, provide a window into the 1950s social and sexual lives of visitors to this isolated Fire Island beach community. Photographs of costume-themed parties, LGBTQ and gender-fluid theater productions, beach life and town events, show the joy and passion that gay men and women felt once they were in the Grove.
The Cherry Grove Community House and Theatre, now recognized in the National Registry of Historic Places, provided a stage upon which queer men and women incorporated campy-themed skits not permitted in theaters across America.
Homosexuals in this small hamlet began to experience an open ‘community’ alongside their straight neighbors during the 1950s, where gay people were, for once, in the majority and were able to socialize together but still maintain their queer identities in relative safety.
The Cherry Grove Archives Collection hopes to convey through this exhibition a greater appreciation of the connection and the historical significance of 1950s Cherry Grove to the larger LGBTQ movement in the United States.
CGAC, Gift of Gay Nathan & Julie Paradise
The original Cherry Grove homeowners were straight white families who had come across the Great South Bay from Sayville and Patchogue in the 1920s. The newcomers of the late 1940s and 1950s were largely gay white men from New York City who were of a social class that could afford the expense of traveling to Fire Island for the weekends.
Cocktails, sun bathing, sex, and parties were the norm during summer weekends. Gay men and women found opportunities to socialize out in the open, whether on the beach or on the decks of Grove houses. Summer events included theatre performances, annual regattas and art shows, beach volleyball and baseball, and an end of the season costume ball.
Fire Island cottages that rented for weekends or by the season lacked electricity, heat, or running water. In the evenings, many gathered at local restaurants or at Duffy’s Hotel bar, which had a generator, and at times, same-sex dancing late at the night.
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of John Sorensen & Walter Caron
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Paul Jablonski
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Gay Nathan & Julie Paradise
CGAC, Gift of John Sorensen & Walter Caron
During the 1950s a sense of togetherness could be felt at campy Cherry Grove costume parties where attendees, straight and gay, showed off flamboyant outfits that would have otherwise been considered a violation of New York laws prohibiting risqué attire and cross-dressing.
House members hosting a party would often send out creative invitations with tongue-in-cheek humor. Many Grove house parties were also fundraisers for organizations such as the Cherry Grove Fire Department; the Arts Project of Cherry Grove, which organized theatrical productions; the Dune Fund, which preserved the beach dunes; and the Doctor’s House, which provided community medical services.
Under the guise of dressing up, many men and women were able to play with gender norms at these fabulous cocktail parties, thereby challenging mainstream society’s expectations for “proper” behavior.
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
Dr. Elmer Lindsey & Martin L. Kraft's Boat Deck Party, 1952
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
Same-sex relationships were openly expressed and nurtured within this supportive and relatively safe Fire Island community. Men and women who came to 1950s Cherry Grove were free to explore their same-sex attractions, to develop positive gay identities, and to enjoy gay social support networks. The desire to express one's sexual self remained strong for gay people despite troubles with outside, anti-gay forces, including local police raids and marauding gangs of young men from the mainland towns.
Some gay men in Cherry Grove emulated the 1950s beefcake aesthetic of influential Physique Pictorial (1951-1990) and similar magazines, whose representations of men helped to construct a new gay male identity and lifestyle.
During the 1950s, gay male sexual expression in this community was often uninhibited and not always restricted to ongoing relationships. Cherry Grove lesbian sexual expression seemed more private, discrete, and centered around romantic relationships.
CGAC, Gift of Paul Jablonski
CGAC, Gift of Paul Jablonski
CGAC, Gift of Paul Jablonski
CGAC, Gift of Ceil Rogers Family
CGAC, Gift of Paul Jablonski
CGAC, Gift of Gay Nathan & Julie Paradise
CGAC, Gift of Paul Jablonski
The Arts Project of Cherry Grove (APCG) formed in 1948 as a community organization dedicated to presenting the arts. Since its inception, APCG has produced hundreds of summer season events, including original theater productions, cabaret acts, art exhibitions, and film festivals in Cherry Grove's Community House.
When it was founded, it was one of the first organizations in the United States where gay community members were equal contributors, together with straight members. The APCG's plays showcased the talents of gay actors and directors, often reflective of their culture. It granted Grove residents a creative space to exist outside the watchful eye of the local authorities. This freedom was not unquestioned, however, even within the confines of the theater. There were some who wished to maintain the decorum of "decent behavior" everywhere in the Cherry Grove community.
*In 2013, the National Parks Service formally approved the listing of the Cherry Grove Community House and Theater on the National Register of Historic Places as the nation’s oldest continually operating gay theater in the United States.
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
APCG Presentation, Community House, 1952
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
Being gay and being gay in public were two very different experiences in the 1950s, when queer people often lived in fear of being labeled homosexual. Most chose to hide deep inside their private "closets" worrying about retribution by their families, bosses, religious leaders, political officials, and by a US justice system that severely punished those discovered to be homosexual. The significance of an openly gay community in 1950s America cannot be underestimated.
To socialize in public in the light of day was a magical experience for visitors to Cherry Grove. Within this supportive, fun-loving community, gay men and women were free to be "out". Long summer days on the beach, gay-themed theater productions, weekend house parties, sitting together in local bars and restaurants, community fundraisers- all these were spaces where queer people and their straight neighbors could form social connections and share experiences that were not possible off-island.
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Don Steeple
CGAC, Gift of John Sorensen & Walter Caron
CGAC, Gift of John Sorensen & Walter Caron
CGAC, Gift of Gay Nathan & Julie Paradise
CGAC, Gift of Gay Nathan & Julie Paradise
CGAC, Gift of Michael Peskoff & Tom Holden
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Don Steeple
CGAC, Gift of Gay Nathan & Julie Paradise
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
Patricia Fitzgerald, Kay Guiness, Mary Ronin & Bea Greer
CGAC, Gift of Gay Nathan & Julie Paradise
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
CGAC, Gift of Harold Seeley
Discrimination existed across race, class, gender, and religion in 1950s Cherry Grove just as it did in the larger society. In the 1960s, following developments in the civil rights movement, Cherry Grove became more welcoming to Black and Latino gay people, which is reflected in photographs from this time. Also, working-class gay women began spending more time in the Grove in the 1960s, a change from the groups of affluent and professionally successful women who were there in the 1940s and 1950s.
During the 1980s, the AIDS crisis devastated Cherry Grove. Both lesbians and gay men in the Grove took care of many of their male friends who were dying from this disease. Later on, middle-class lesbians had the financial ability to buy houses that had once belonged to these men, preserving the Grove as a queer community.
Courtesy of Susan Kravitz
Courtesy of Susan Kravitz
Courtesy of Susan Kravitz
CGAC, Gift of John Sorensen & Walter Caron
Courtesy of koitz
CGAC, Gift of ???
Courtesy of Kathleen O'Donnell
"Ephemera" is described as items of collectible memorabilia, typically written or printed ones, that were originally expected to have only short-term usefulness or popularity. We have presented a collection of photos, party invitations, hand-written letters and more, to help illuminate the culture of 1950s Cherry Grove.
Photographs in SAFE/HAVEN: Gay Life in 1950s Cherry Grove were selected from those donated to the Cherry Grove Archives Collection by Harold Seeley, Gay Nathan and Julie Paradise, John Sorensen and Walter Caron, Paul Jablonski, Ceil Rogers Family, Don Steeple, Michael Peskoff and Tom Holden.
Photos from the "A Growing Community" portion of the exhibition were donated by Susan Kravitz, Kathleen O'Donnell, koitz and Hideki Takami.
Audio clips are narrated by Parker Sargent and feature longtime residents of Cherry Grove; Jack Dowling, Audrey Hartmann, Robert Levine, Michael McPherson and George Cabell.
Excerpts were taken from CGAC interviews conducted in 2015-2022.
Exhibition text written by Brian Clark and Susan Kravitz and Rebecca Klassen..
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner in any media, or transmitted by any means whatsoever, electronic or mechanical (including photocopy, film or video recording, internet posting, or any other information storage and retrieval system), without prior written permission of the publisher.
© Cherry Grove Archives Collection 2024
Safehaven is an exhibition intended to travel. CGAC has developed several presentations that can be displayed in a variation of environments, from the size of a New York City block to an historic beach cottage, we can bring Safehaven to your community.
If you're interested in presenting the Safehaven exhibition, please contact our Chair Person Troy Files (contact@cgarchives.org) for more details.