2nd Pride Walking Tour

Our 2nd Pride Walking Tour takes us for a stroll down Monroe Avenue, known in the 80s as a street in the ”Lavender Valley.” This free tour begins just beyond I-490 in the Upper Monroe Neighborhood in the Southeast Quadrant at the first home of Open Arms Metropolitan Community Church (now New Life Presbyterian Church). Identified by City Newspaper in 2015 as the “Best under-the-radar-neighborhood,” it is quiet and upscale with a suburban feel.

Tour schedule: Monroe Village, an eclectic portion of Monroe Avenue, is one of Upstate New York’s biggest and most vibrant pedestrian-oriented urban villages. It was also the home of the Out Alliance, then the Gay Alliance of the Genesee Valley, at the Genesee Coop from 1973 through 1990. An amalgamation of two buildings, the Coop, originally a food buying club, provided the community with shelter to a number of social and political groups, and a wide variety of low-cost courses through its “communiversity.” We continue our tour down the Avenue to the home of Silkwood Books, a woman’s bookstore, possibly the first, and Paul’s Grocery, where you could find just about anything. We end our tour with a free reception at The Avenue Pub – the longest running gay bar on Monroe Avenue – presented by The Landmark Society and the kitchen at The Avenue Pub.