THE 'STONEWALL CAR' BRINGS MEMORIES OF CHANGE

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NEW YORK CITY STORIES

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The Stonewall Car

Williamson L. Henderson Marches With Stonewall Car

Gay pride in New York City has once again ended, but every year the hit of the Gay Pride colorful celebration is the STONEWALL CAR.

The now famous 1969 "Stonewall Car" was so named not by the STONEWALL Veterans' Association ("S.V.A."), which now owns the car, but by many people in the streets subsequent to the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion. They regularly drove the eye-catching, metallic blue, show-boating, big car down the full length of Christopher Street from Greenwich Avenue to West Street (West Side Highway) at the Hudson River in Greenwich Village, New York -- and still do -- and many Gay and other people yelled out -- and still do -- "The 'Stonewall Car'"!

Stonewall Car Plate

Those original participants and observers readily recognized the cool, unique, stand-out, metallic blue, big Cadillac convertible, one-and-only car impounded ("hijacked") by the New York City Police Department ("NYCPD") on the first night of the Stonewall Rebellion (it was not a 'riot' -- no vandalism, no injuries, not one auto insurance claim) on Friday night, June 27th, 1969 at about 2 a.m. The car with the top 'down' had been parked, as usual, on the same block as the Stonewall Club on Christopher Street -- really only a stone's throw from the club's entrance. The car was driven (not towed, as many think) by two un-uniformed NYCPD police officers to the old Sixth Precinct on Charles Street near the Hudson River in Greenwich Village. Fortunately, the event was a 'rebellion' and not a 'riot' or the car would have been definitely damaged or possibly destroyed.

The 1969 Cadillac DeVille convertible "Stonewall Car" is proudly owned, diligently maintained, safely garaged, fully insured and carefully cleaned by the STONEWALL Veterans' Association ("S.V.A."). Years after the Stonewall Rebellion, the appropriate license plate for the "Stonewall Car" was secured: "STONEWAL". In New York State you can only have eight characters (letters and/or numbers) on a license plate. The saved last "L" is for "Liberators". 

 For more information on The Stonewall Car and the Stonewall Veterans Association, visit their interesting website. You can also support this historic car. It is history you will not want to forget!

Photos Courtesy Of:Phyllis "Pally" Murray, RN STONEWALL Rebellion Veterans Association