PRESERVATION DETROIT’S
2026 LECTURE SERIES

Get Your Detroit Queer History Straight:
LGBTQ History in Detroit Walking Tour

Join Preservation Detroit with special guest speaker, local historian, and tour guide Michael Boettcher in "Get Your Detroit Queer History Straight," a hands-on exploration of Detroit's rich and largely untold LGBTQ history! Commemorate Queer History Month through a Downtown walking tour of some of the earliest sites associated with Detroit's LGBTQ community, starting in the 1930s.

From the groundbreaking Club Frontenac, which opened in 1936 as the city's first gay bar, to the vibrant Palmer Park "gayborhood" of the 1960s, Boettcher traces the evolution of Detroit's queer community through decades of triumph and adversity. The tour examines how Detroit once boasted dozens of gay bars and a thriving LGBTQ district. Boettcher's tour not only celebrates the city's pioneering LGBTQ heritage but also connects this history to contemporary efforts to revitalize Detroit's queer community.

October 3rd, 2026
11 AM - 1 PM

Guardian Building Promenade
500 Griswold Street
Detroit, MI