This year, TWB achieved a significant milestone by becoming a national historic site. This designation places it among a handful of properties across the country recognized for their significance in LGBTQ history, and only the third such site on the West Coast.
The designation stemmed from a dedicated effort spearheaded by Donna Graves, a public historian based in Berkeley. Since 2016, Graves had worked on the Women’s Building application after securing a grant from the National Park Service’s LGBTQ Heritage Initiative, a program specifically funding LGBT historic nominations. Her contributions extended beyond the application, as she also co-wrote a historic context statement for San Francisco’s LGBTQ community and contributed a chapter to the Park Service’s LGBTQ theme study.