More than 250 works of art survive on a row of blocks preserved when the limestone steps north of Diversey Harbor in Chicago were replaced with a new concrete-and-steel revetment. The other blocks — there had to be thousands ripped out — hosted a treasure trove of art that is now gone forever.
The Belmont Rocks before and after. Note the line of blocks along the top of the new concrete revetment.
Those same blocks helped form the heart of Chicago’s gay community. I’ll leave it to Owen Keehnen, historian of the Rocks, to explain more in this passage from the Facebook group he manages.
Even before Stonewall or the rise of the modern #LGBTQ rights movement, the Belmont Rocks in Chicago were a place to call our own. From the early 1960s-late 90s, the Rocks were a symbol of our right to be here, our right to exist, & our right to meet in the sunlight at a time when our bars still had blackened windows.
The Rocks were a political statement tied to our liberation, a place of empowerment, a revolution of just being #queer. This was a birthplace of community.
Queer art & carvings covered many of the stones, turning the place into an open-air gallery as well. The Rocks were our tablets, our altars, our backrooms – a platform and a stage for a big part of Chicago’s unfolding queer story.
The Belmont Rocks were bulldozed in 2003 as part of the shoreline revetment program.
Although the gay scene at the Belmont Rocks did not survive the reconstruction, about 250-odd blocks did, some of them bearing carvings, paintings and drawings.
The reconstruction project left a small section of limestone revetment in place at the entrance to Diversey Harbor. In addition to some two dozen carvings that survive there, this spot includes a beautifully carved violin executed in 2021-2.
The artwork to the north of the harbor entrance resides on blocks relocated along the top of the new concrete revetment. Then-Alderman Tom Tunney personally identified for the project’s management meaningful art-bearing rocks he wanted saved. The preserved carvings all remain visible. Many of the paintings and writings have either faded or been obscured with overpainting, though some of them can still be seen.
This map shows the locations of surviving paintings and carvings from Diversey Harbor north. Click for a pdf that is both interactive and printable. Each specific artwork links to a photo of the work.
The first gallery below shows some of the most interesting carvings and other artwork that survived. The second gallery includes a small sample of what was lost.
