Cherry Grove Community House & Theatre

Cherry Grove is often called America's first gay town, and this modest shingled building on Bayview Walk is its town hall, its stage and its living room all at once. Built in 1947, the Community House became home the following year to the Arts Project of Cherry Grove, whose debut revue — the "Cherry Grove Follies of 1948" — launched what is now the oldest continuously operating LGBTQ theater in the United States. The early Arts Project drew serious talent: theater director Frank Carrington (of nearby Carrington House), Broadway producer Cheryl Crawford and writer Carson McCullers were among the figures in its orbit. More remarkable than the names is what the stage allowed — productions that openly played with gay life and camp decades before Stonewall, performed by and for a community that elsewhere in America could be jailed for dancing together. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in June 2013, among the first sites in the country recognized specifically for LGBT historical significance, and it remains the Grove's civic anchor — hosting community meetings, benefits, drag and cabaret nights, and the events surrounding the famous July 4th Invasion of the Pines. Visiting: the season runs summer-only, roughly June through early September — plays, readings, concerts and drag across the calendar (see artsprojectcg.org). Cherry Grove is reached by ferry from Sayville, Long Island. Pair the show with a walk to Carrington House and the beach, and you have the most historically dense afternoon on Fire Island.