Mattachine Steps, LGBTQ+ heritage site in Silver Lake, Los Angeles
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Mattachine Steps

Google (122) 4.6
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Address
2348 Cove Avenue, Silver Lake, Los Angeles, CA 90039

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About this place Mattachine Steps

The Mattachine Steps are a public stairway on Cove Avenue in Silver Lake, below the house where Harry Hay lived. On 11 November 1950 Hay and a few friends met there to start what became the Mattachine Society, one of the first lasting gay-rights organisations in the United States, nearly two decades before Stonewall. The city renamed the stairway in 2012, on the centenary of Hay's birth. There is little to see beyond the steps, a sign and views over the Silver Lake Reservoir, but it is a quiet stop on a Silver Lake walk. The houses along the stairs are private, so keep noise down and do not linger outside them.

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4.6
★★★★★
122 reviews

Based on 122 Google reviews.

Maddu Devi Jun 2026
★★★★★
Dorian Gray Apr 2026
★★★★★

Love it here

Raymond Sep 2025
★★★★★

So many stairs! Escalators have been invented right? I didn't imagine it?

Thomas Harblin Sep 2025
★★★★★

I didn't actually make it to the stairs it's on my bucket list because The Three stooges were there. I think they were delivering a piano.

Peng He Apr 2025
★★★★★

The view is blocked by plants and wirings

RaMond Thomas Mar 2025
★★★★★

Great climb for exercise. The reservoir across the street excellent for a walk or jog to get the feel of this neighborhood.

Craig Baker Mar 2025
★★★★★

One of the earliest American gay movement organizations, the Mattachine Society began in Los Angeles in the winter of 1950. It was formed by Harry Hay, a leading gay activist and former Communist Party member, along with seven other gay men. The name refers to the Société Mattachine, a French medieval masque group that allegedly traveled from village to village, using ballads and dramas to point out social injustice. The name was meant to symbolize the fact that "gays were a masked people, unknown and anonymous." By sharing their personal experiences as gay men and analyzing homosexuals in the context of an oppressed cultural minority, the Mattachine founders attempted to redefine the meaning of being gay in the United States.

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Last updated on 9 November 2026

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