Love Philly? So do we. Let’s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today.
The William Way LGBT Community Center at 1315 Spruce has served as a resource and meeting space for Philly’s LGBTQ+ population for the last 50 years. Located at the heart of the Gayborhood, the building offers community programming, cultural resources and support services.
The space, however, is in rough shape.
“For the last over 10 years, the community center has struggled,” Marc Segal, president of the Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld Fund and publisher of Philadelphia Gay News. “The building is at this point closed simply because it’s inhabitable. The roof is totally destroyed. If you go into the basement, it’s like going to a swamp.”
While Segal called the building “unsavable,” leaders around the city are working to raise funds and build a brand new center in its place.
“A community center is a place where people can go and feel safe,” Segal said. “Our trans community, our youth community, our senior community, they all have special needs, and this will be a place to go there.”
“It also gives us a sense of community,” he added. “I mean, there are Catholic centers for that reason in the city. There are Jewish centers in the city for those reasons. And why should our community be any different?”
The board of William Way came to Segal and the DHM Fund, because of their prior work with the John C. Anderson Apartments, LGBTQ+ friendly and affordable senior housing located nearby. The plan is to rebuild an even larger center at William Way, as well as 40 affordable senior apartments.
Segal was initially reluctant to take on the William Way project. He estimated the building could take five to seven years to finish.
“I was very hesitant to be very honest,” he said. “I’m 75, doing another one of these is a little much.”
Ultimately, he realized it was a project he could not turn down.
“We shouldn’t be one of the biggest cities in America without an LGBT community center,” he said. “We deserve better.”
The importance of maintaining a safe community space in the Gayborhood has only been further emphasized this Pride season. On June 6, multiple attendees of Pride celebrations reported an excessive and intimidating police presence in the neighborhood.
“For many Black LGBTQ+ people, interactions with law enforcement carry a different historical and lived experience,” Philly Black Pride told Billy Penn after the celebration. “When people come to Pride, they’re coming to celebrate who they are, be in community, and experience joy. When the atmosphere shifts and begins to feel overly policed, aggressive, or confrontational, it can quickly change the experience from one of celebration to one of anxiety.”
So far, nearly 50 community, business and political leaders — heads of LGBTQ+ non-profit organizations and city officials — have signed on to be members of the dmhFUND Advisory Board to help the project reach the finish line. According to the dmhFUND, both Gov. Josh Shapiro and Mayor Cherelle Parker “have expressed enthusiasm.”
“In the last month, we started calling community leaders and asking them if they wanted to be on the advisory board, and we explained to each and every one of them that the current building has to come down,” Segal said. “It’s not feasible to save any of it, and each and every one of them almost immediately said ‘Absolutely.’”
“Knowing that you have the united community, I’m not afraid of taking the steps I’m going to have to take now, because I know I’m not doing it alone.”
