Address: 1710 N. Crilly Court Year Built: 1885 Architect: Unknown Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: June 6, 2001

Located in the Old Town Triangle Chicago Landmark District, this stone-fronted rowhouse is individually distinguished as the home of pioneering gay civil-rights activist Henry Gerber (1892-1972) between 1924 and 1925. During his residency here, Gerber formed the Society for Human Rights, the first American gay civil-rights organization, whose newsletter, Friendship and Freedom, was the first documented gay civil-rights publication in the United States.

While serving with the U.S. Army of Occupation in Germany from 1920 to 1923, Gerber became active in the emerging German gay civil-rights movement. He may have been involved in the publication of German gay civil-rights periodicals at that time, laying the foundation for his later work in Chicago. Upon his relocation to Chicago, Gerber established the Society for Human Rights with a group of early gay civil-rights advocates who were willing to accept the personal risk of publicly identifying themselves as homosexuals at a time when gay men and lesbians routinely faced discrimination, harassment, and imprisonment.

1.	Exterior, photo by Brian Goeken
2.	Photo of Henry Gerber
3.	Friendship and Freedom grouped with European gay-rights publications of the 1920s