BELLOWS FALLS, Vt. – Throughout the month of June, Bellows Falls will once more become a destination for the LGBTQ+ community in New England and beyond, echoing the days of the historic Andrews Inn, which was in business from 1973-1984 and located in the downtown Windham Hotel building. During this time, the gay community sought out the town as a place of safety and security. Patrons would travel by train to the only LGBTQ+ friendly destination in the state for a weekend of dancing and house parties. Described in 1979 as a “cultural cross between Mayberry and Fire Island,” the Andrews Inn had 56 rooms to rent, a bar, jukebox disco, and coffee shop. It was owned by the locally revered Moisis family, whose son John had the initial vision which would go on to save the family business.
As part of the Andrews Inn Oral History Project, photographs of the six founders – John Moisis, Jeremy Youst, Thom Herman, Fletcher Proctor, Eva Mondon, and Michael Gigante – were memorialized. They will be exhibited in the Exner Gallery, located in the Exner Building on Canal Street in Bellows Falls, Vt., from June 8-11. The opening will be held on Thursday, June 8, from 4-6 p.m., and refreshments will be available.
Gail Golec, producer of the podcast The Secret Life of Death, which can be found at www.thesecretlifeofdeath.com, will be available to speak with guests at the opening about her recent accomplishment, a six-part series featuring the Andrews Inn which chronicles what it was like for residents and visitors alike to experience this important decade.
From the Out in the Open Website: “The Andrews Inn Oral History Project emerged from a rich collaboration between Out in the Open (formerly Green Mountain Crossroads), Marlboro College, and Vermont Performance Lab that was hatched in the spring of 2015. HB Lozito of Out in the Open had been wanting to undertake a rural LGBTQ+ oral history project for some time, and this collaboration provided the spark. Sara Coffey of Vermont Performance Lab was working with writer/director/performer Ain Gordon on his next project, and was seeking ways to connect his creative research into the radical movements of the 70s and 80s and the emergence of gay culture with our local LGBTQ+ communities, and Kate Ratcliff and Brenda Foley on the American Studies and Theater faculty at Marlboro College had a shared interest in the history of social movements and project based learning. The shared research fed the creation of Gordon’s new work “Radicals in Miniature,” yielded student projects that were grounded in oral histories collected from local radicals who were involved in various movements and projects, and Out in the Open’s Andrews Inn Oral History Project. In the winter of 2017, Evie Lovett joined this collaboration to create present-day portraits of the interviewees featured in the project.”
For more information about the oral history project, contact Out in the Open at info@weareoutintheopen.org, or visit www.weareoutintheopen.org/aiohp. For all other questions, contact bellowsfallspride@gmail.com.