15 Christopher Street, ca. 1975.

Built in 1827 by textile manufacturer and New York Assemblyman Samuel Whittemore, the wood frame house behind No. 15's brick facade is one of the oldest standing in Greenwich Village.

In Edmund Vincent Gillon's 1970s photograph, the first-floor storefront is occupied by the Oscar Wilde Memorial Bookshop, which moved to this location in 1973. Founded in 1967 on Mercer Street, the shop is credited as the first bookstore with an avowed focus on gay and lesbian authors. In 2009, the store closed, undone by an industry-wide decline in book sales compounded by the financial crisis.