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100 Objects #21: Window from the House of D

How the windows of a women's prison helped build a mecca of gay America and a movement.

In 1932, the Women's House of Detention – New York City's first women's prison – opened in the heart of Greenwich Village. It was opened to make "wayward" women quiet, private, and properly feminine. And the building had one unique feature originally meant to be a sort of kindness – a special kind of window that the women inside could open. Roman Mars and historian Hugh Ryan trace how those special windows had an impact that nobody could have predicted – helping to build a mecca of gay America and, ultimately, a movement.

Host: Roman Mars
Producers: Priscilla Alabi, Brenna Daldorph, Isaac Fisher, Ellie Lightfoot
EPs: Annie Brown, Courtney Harrell, Kathy Tu

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38 minutes