Stonewall operated as a private club because it was not allowed to obtain a liquor license; police raided the bar frequently, in spite of bribes from the owners.

The Stonewall Inn closed in 2006, and it reopened in March 2007 after Bill Morgan, Tony DeCicco, Kurt Kelly, and Stacy Lentz acquired the bar.

The Stonewall Inn buildings at 51–53 Christopher Street, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City, were constructed as double-height horse stables.

[15] The restaurant hosted various banquets and weddings,[9] as well as events including a 1935 dinner for the Greenwich Village Association[16] and a 1961 reunion party for performers involved with the play Summer and Smoke.

[22] The neighborhood's LGBT community was originally concentrated around Greenwich Avenue and Washington Square Park, but, by the 1960s, had started to move westward along Christopher Street.

[23] To cater to the growing LGBT community, in 1966, four mafiosos associated with the Genovese crime family paid $3,500 for the Stonewall Inn, turning the restaurant into a gay bar.

[40] After acquiring the buildings, the owners renovated the exterior, blacked out the windows for privacy, and reinforced the wooden front doors with steel plates in anticipation of police raids.

[30] The New York Daily News called the bar a "mecca" for the LGBT community in the neighborhood,[72] and Newsday wrote that "Here the young men with the delicate wrists and the bobby pins in their hair come to dance the night away with one another".

[60] Homeless youth and drag queens frequented the bar by 1969;[73] it was one of the only places where they were socially accepted,[74] and the admission fee meant that additional drinks did not require a tab.

[80] The cash registers were taken the first time the New York City Police Department (NYPD) raided the bar; thereafter, Stonewall's income was stored in cigar boxes.

[31][87] In the 1969 edition of the New York Mattachine Society's guidebook to gay clubs around the city, there was a notation advising would-be patrons against giving out any personally identifying information at the Stonewall Inn, especially to employees.

[59] In addition to dancing, the main room was a popular place for gay men to congregate and cruise, and there were a small number of tables with candles.

[100] Alice Echols, in a 2010 book, cited the two dance floors as possibly having "helped to undermine the sort of sexual indirection and repression that characterized most gay bars".

[85] There were numerous attempts to install a commemorative plaque or a statue on or near the bar buildings, but these efforts received criticisms for failing to sufficiently acknowledge nonwhite or transgender people.

[149] Mimi Sheraton, in a New York Times article from that year, described 53 Christopher Street as having wood-paneled walls, wood columns, and rhombus-shaped mirrors, giving the appearance of a "never-ending abstract forest".

[170] Due to repeated noise complaints, by the 2000s, patrons were required to enter through an adjacent building on Seventh Avenue South, rather than the main Christopher Street entrance.

According to one member of Manhattan Community Board 2, the owners were reportedly closing curtains (which was disallowed because the club held a New York state liquor license) and allowing sexually explicit shows inside.

[165] The Pink News attributed the bar's decline to long-running resentment between different groups of patrons,[172] but neglect, gross mismanagement, and noise complaints from neighbors were also cited as reasons for its downfall.

[188] One commentator described the bar in 2019 as displaying sponsorship banners above the entrance, while the vacant storefront at 53 Christopher Street contained posters decrying violence against LGBT people.

[211] A crosswalk at Christopher Street and Seventh Avenue South to the west, the closest intersection to the Stonewall Inn, has been painted in the colors of the LGBT rainbow flag since 2017.

[215] At ground level, the center of number 53's facade contains a rectangular, 4-by-8-foot (1.2 by 2.4 m) storefront window with a brick windowsill, which in turn is flanked by arched entrances.

[187] The second story of the revived bar includes a room with a capacity of 150 people;[228] this dance floor has a stage, a disco ball, seats with leopard print upholstery, and velour curtains.

The modern Stonewall Inn has hosted a variety of local music artists, drag shows, trivia nights, cabaret, karaoke, private parties, and same-sex wedding receptions.

[155] For example, it served as a memorial after dozens of gay men were killed in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting,[246] and people protested at the bar in response to anti-LGBT actions taken by the first[146][155] and second administrations of U.S. President Donald Trump.

[252] Stonewall Inn Gives Back Initiative has hosted events such as a 2020 concert co-hosted by German alcohol brand Jägermeister to raise money for nightlife workers.

[282][283] The bar hosted a rally as part of the Stonewall 50 – WorldPride NYC 2019 event,[284] which took place a half-century after the riots and, with 5 million spectators, was the largest international Pride celebration in history at the time.

[286] In early 1999, thirty years after the riots, the GVSHP and the Organization of Lesbian and Gay Architects and Designers jointly nominated the bar for inclusion on the NRHP.

[288] The GVSHP began advocating for Stonewall to be designated as an individual city landmark in January 2014, following the demolition of a showroom on Park Avenue,[289] as the group wanted the buildings' appearance to be preserved.

[305] Other LGBT–related sites were added to the NRHP following Stonewall's designation, including Julius Bar, James Baldwin Residence, and Caffe Cino in New York City.

[37][315] Some reporters, such as Fred W. McDarrah of The Village Voice[316] and Joseph Ambrosini of the New York Daily News, took a limited number of pictures of the riots and the bar itself.