Webster Hall & Annex
overview
Webster Hall is one of New York’s most significant large 19th-century assembly halls, and it became famous for its Bohemian masquerade balls in the 1910s and 1920s.
It was significant as a gathering place for the city’s early 20th-century lesbian and gay community, who felt welcome and then sponsored their own events by the 1920s.
Costume ball at Webster Hall, 1910s or 1920s. Photographer unknown.
Djuna Barnes, c. 1921. Photographer unknown. Source: University of Maryland.
Self-Portrait of Charles Demuth, 1907. Collection of the Demuth Museum, Lancaster, PA.
Poster for Costume Ball and Carnival of the Artists and Writers Dinner Club at Webster Hall, 1933. Made by artist John Sloan. Source: Kraushaar Gallery.
Poster for New Year's Carnival at Webster Hall Celebrating the Repeal of Prohibition- “The Return-of-John-Barleycorn,” 1933. Made by artist John Sloan. Source: Kraushaar Gallery.
Webster Hall letterhead, c. 1900. Courtesy of the New York Public Library, Billy Rose Theatre Division.
Webster Hall, 1913. Photo by International News Service.
Webster Hall marquee celebrating its landmark designation, 2008.
History
One of New York’s most historically and culturally significant large 19th-century assembly halls, Webster Hall was the venue for countless events including conventions and political and union rallies, particularly for the working-class and immigrant populations of the Lower East Side. In the 1910s and ’20s, it became famous for its Bohemian masquerade balls.
It was significant as a gathering place for the city’s early 20th-century lesbian and gay community, who felt welcome to attend the balls in drag, and then sponsored their own events by the 1920s. Among the many LGBT notables who attended events here at this time were artist Charles Demuth and writer Djuna Barnes.
The organizers of the balls…welcomed the presence of flamboyant gay men – sometimes making them a part of the pageants they staged – precisely because they knew they enhanced the reputation and appeal of such events.
Chauncey also noted, “By the early 1920s, the presence of gay men and lesbians in the Village was firmly established. No longer were they simply visitors to the Liberal Club’s masquerade balls. They organized their own balls at Webster Hall and appropriated as their own many of the other social spaces created by the bohemians of the 1910s.”
Entry by Jay Shockley, project director (March 2017).
NOTE: Names above in bold indicate LGBT people.
Building Information
- Architect or Builder: Charles Rentz, Jr.
- Year Built: 1886-87; 1892 addition
Sources
George Chauncey, Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 (New York: Basic Books, 1994).
Jay Shockley, Webster Hall and Annex Designation Report (New York: Landmarks Preservation Commission, 2008).
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