HISTORY AND MISSION

Shortly after GCCP opened its first location at 326 Kater Street, a plea went out for book donations. The Library started as a general reading room, with both gay and non-gay titles.  In 1979, volunteer Kirk Hoffmeier ran with the project and started to structure it into an organized, accessible LGBT-specific library.  Shortly thereafter, Rusel Silkey became the Center's volunteer librarian.  He would continue in that capacity until 1989.

In 1981, the Community Center moved to 222 South Camac Street, in the side of the Lincoln Apartments.  After that second location closed in 1984, the Center spent four years without a home but continued to sponsor events.  Starting in 1985, it billed itself as "Penguin Place: The Community Center Without Walls."  From 1984 to 1988, only the Library had its own space: a room that Penguin Place rented for it in the Community Education Center at 3500 Lancaster Avenue, near Drexel University.

The newly renamed Penguin Place Gay and Lesbian Community Center reopened in 1988 on Quince Street, across from the Bike Stop.  From 1990 to 1997, Penguin Place was at 201 South Camac Street.  There, the Library had a large home on the ground floor and -- for the first time -- a separate room for the Archives.  There was finally enough space to begin inventorying the archival materials.  That was fortunate, because the Library soon acquired the complete holdings of Philly's old Gay/Lesbian Archives, donated to us when its founder/archivist moved to California.  Around the same time, we changed our name to The Lesbian & Gay Library/Archives of Philadelphia (LGLAP).  In the mid 1990s, the Library/Archives added the words "Bisexual" and "Transgender" to its name, and Penguin Place soon did the same.

In 1997, after more than twenty years of renting, the Community Center finally bought a building: the present location at 1315 Spruce Street.  The executive board named it the The William Way Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center.  William "Bill" Way, who died in 1988, was a driving force behind the community center in the 1980s.  In his capacity as a city planner, he was also heavily involved in the revitalization of Center City.