The Peggie Ames House: Preserving Jeffry J. Iovannone (he/him) History in the Rust Belt Christiana Limniatis (she/her) 11 March 2021 Peggie Ames (1921-2000)

Photo courtesy of the Dr. Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of Western , Archives & Special Collections Department, E. H. Butler Library, SUNY Buffalo State. Christine Jorgensen (1926-1989)

Jorgensen leaving on the S. S. (Aug. 7, 1954). Photo Credit: Fred Morgan/. New York Daily News, Dec. 1, 1952. Ames posing in her home at 9500 Clarence Center Rd, Clarence, NY

Photo courtesy of the Dr. Madeline Davis LGBTQ Archive of , Archives & Special Collections Department, E. H. Butler Library, SUNY Buffalo State. Dr. Anke A. Ehrhardt

Buffalo Courier-Express (Buffalo, NY), July 23, 1972. Reed Erickson (1912-1992)

Erickson Educational Foundation (1964-1977)

Reed Erickson (1962). Credit: Photo courtesy of the ONE Archives at the USC Libraries. EEF pamphlet (1974)

Image credit: Digital Transgender Archive. Zelda R. Suplee (1908-1989)

The Janus Information Facility, University of Texas (with Dr. Paul Walker)

Photo Credit: WikiTree, “Zelda Roth Suplee.” Abram J. Lewis:

“It is important to note, however, that precisely because trans communities were barred from major reform efforts, the strategies they developed to support their lives and work often occurred outside of formal organizations. At times, these strategies do not look like conventional activism at all. Even before relations with gays and feminists became fraught, trans activists prioritized self-determination within their own communities. And rather than seeking access to dominant support structures, informal survival services and mutual aid were priorities, reflected especially in initiatives like STAR House” (“‘Free Our Siblings, Free Ourselves:’ Historicizing Trans Activism in the U.S., 1952–1992”). Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR) House

Founded in 1970 by Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson

Located in a tenement at 213 East 2nd Street in the East Village

Photo courtesy of NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project. The Peggie Ames House Photo from the southwest corner of the residence illustrating the different building campaigns. Photo Credit: Intensive Level Historic Resource Survey of the Town of Clarence by Clinton Brown Company Architecture pc. (2008). ←1866

1880→ Greek Revival Style in America

● 1825-1860s ● Low pitched roof ● Cornice lines emphasized with wide divided band of trim ● Entry or full-width porches ● Columns/pilasters ● Front entries with sidelights or transoms incorporated to elaborate surrounds ● Odd ranking ● Vernacular examples with wings or hyphens National Register of Historic Places

● Federal government's official list of historic resources deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. ● Honorary not regulatory ● Since its inception, more than 95,000 resources have been listed ● Together these records hold information on more than 1.4 million individual resources National Register Criteria for Eligibility

The quality of significance in American history, architecture, archaeology, engineering, and culture is present in districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects that possess integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and association, and:

A. That are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of our history; or B. That are associated with the lives of significant persons in or past; or C. That embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction; or

D. That have yielded or may be likely to yield, information important in history or prehistory. Photo of Ames in her craft shop from Louise Leiker’s article “A ’s Anguish: Alone, Assaulted and Harassed.” Buffalo Courier-Express (Buffalo, NY), May 14, 1978.

“Anyone who has lived in an old house, desired so intensely to restore it, will both revel and sympathize with me at all of the challenge and the heartache coupled with the costs and problems that go into such an effort. Nevertheless that was exactly what we started out to do. Pick up from the folks from whom we purchased had stopped when they had to move due to business transfer, and finish a dream.

Now this home represents an extension of me, my personality and my work. Folks who visit near immediately react to these forces. They often exclaim how warm, hospitable and much like me, my interests and the comfortableness the entire house projects. It loses its houselike character and becomes a part of the occupant.” THE PEGGIE AMES HOUSE: PRESERVING IN THE RUST BELT

Jeffry J. Iovannone and Christiana Limniatis

[Slide 1] Peggie Ames was an early transgender activist and advocate from Western New York. Her career began in the 1970s as part of the emerging gay liberation movement and the increased public awareness of transsexualism in the United States. Though largely unknown within broad narratives of transgender history, Ames influenced the advancement of transgender rights and acceptance on both a local and national level and helped to lay a foundation for contemporary transgender, LGBQ, and feminist movements. Most importantly, Ames created a blueprint for trans activism and advocacy in mid-sized cities and rural communities.

Early Life and Transition Born in 1921 in Buffalo, New York, Ames was identified as male at birth. Beginning around the age of 12, she sensed she was “different.” She dressed in her mother’s and sister’s clothes and borrowed their cosmetics when alone. Ames enrolled in Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, and joined a fraternity in an attempt to fit in with her male peers. It was also at Westminster where she met her future wife, Gladys. The pair married and had a child, David, before Ames was drafted into the Air Force during World War II. Honorably discharged a year later, she completed dual degrees in Business and Psychology at the University of Buffalo, opened, with Gladys, an insurance business, and had three more children: Cynthia, Marsha, and Daryll.

The Dietterichs appeared to be a happy and successful family, but Ames lived a dual existence. When she traveled for business trips, she presented herself as male, but was Peggie the remainder of the time. [Slide 2] She followed the story of Christine Jorgensen, the first trans celebrity who brought the concept of “sex change” to the forefront of American consciousness, in the media. [Slide 3] Jorgensen served as a role model for many other , like Ames, to understand themselves and pursue medical transition. Ames, however, observed that although Jorgensen was celebrated by some, many saw her as little more than a freak of nature. Her suspicion that the attitudes of the general public in Cold War America were not conducive to a public declaration of her identity was confirmed, and she chose to remain closeted.

[Slide 4] It was not until 1973 that Ames learned the word “transsexual,” and the feelings she described as “incessant, continual, obsessional, and always intensifying” became undeniable. That same year, Gladys discovered Ames dressed as her true self. Now that Peggie was “outed,” Ames decided to live full time as who she was. The couple initially discussed living together platonically as two women, but Gladys, a deeply religious woman, could not reconcile the fact that Peggie identified as a . Her children took the news even harder, effectively cutting her out of their lives and denying her access to her eight grandchildren. As part of the divorce agreement, Ames retained ownership of the family home, while Gladys became sole owner of the Dietterich Insurance Agency. As a result of losing the family business and being rejected by her community, Ames struggled financially for the remainder of her life. To support herself, she opened a furniture refinishing and antique restoration business, Pyne Crafts, that she operated out of the barn located at the back of her property, and taught adult education courses on woodworking.

After consulting with doctors at the Foundation in , she underwent in 1974. She saw the same doctors as tennis player Renée Richards, one of the first out trans athletes. In her writing, she noted that while she admired Jorgensen and Richards, she had to forge her own path because, living in a rural community, her life was different from theirs in significant ways. She realized that staying quiet or closeted would do little to advance acceptance in Western New York.

Local Advocacy In 1970, Ames joined the of the Niagara Frontier, Buffalo’s first gay and lesbian civil rights organization. She was elected secretary of MSNF in 1973 and 1974 and was praised for the efficiency and skill with which she performed her duties. She also participated in MSNF’s peer counselor training program, organized panels on transsexualism for Buffalo’s annual Gay Pride Week, and joined MSNF’s Speakers Bureau. In a 1978 profile of Ames written for the Buffalo Courier-Express, she estimated that she had lectured to around 12,000 people on the topic of transsexualism, primarily medical, nursing, and Psychology students at the and other area campuses and medical centers.

National Advocacy [Slide 5] Ames’s advocacy also had national reach. In 1973, she became involved in the counseling programs offered within the gender identity unit of the psychoendocrinology clinic at Buffalo’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital. The clinic was established by Drs. Anke Erhardt and Heino Meyer-Bhalburg, clinical psychologists who worked under Dr. John Money at Johns Hopkins University, then a leader in the study of gender identity and transsexualism. Ames frequently lectured alongside Erhardt in her work to educate medical students in New York State about transsexualism.

When the gender identity unit ceased its operations in 1977 and Erhardt and Meyer-Bhalburg relocated to Columbia University, Ames took matters into her own hands. [Slide 5] She became an established contact person for the Erickson Educational Foundation and later, when the EEF folded in 1977, the Janus Information Facility, based out of the University of Texas. Established in 1964 by the independently wealthy transsexual man Reed Erickson, the EEF became the leading organization to fund research into transsexualism and to provide information and support to trans people in need of guidance. [Slides 6 & 7] Trans people, particularly those from the Western New York area, who contacted the EEF/JIF for support were often referred to Ames for peer counseling or transition-related guidance. Ames, in fact, ran an EEF/JIF-registered peer counseling service out of her house and provided shelter for trans women in need of temporary living accommodations. Ames’s relationship with the EEF/JIF and her use of her home as a proto trans services center is unique for the time period, as the majority of individuals on the EEF/JIF’s referral lists were medical professionals or fledgling transsexual organizations in large cities such as New York and San Francisco. Despite facing harassment, ostracism, and lack of community support, Ames’s house afforded her the ability to provide guidance and support to fellow transsexuals. [Slides 8-11]

The Peggie Ames House [Christy] [Slide 12] The Peggie Ames House on Clarence Center Road in the hamlet of Clarence Center in the Town of Clarence, New York, was built around 1835 and is a two-story Greek Revival style residence with a contributing barn. At the time of its construction, it was located in a tiny community, only about 50 buildings, having only been settled by white settlers about 30 years earlier. While a sleepy farming community in what was then seen as America’s wild western frontier, this area was actually fairly busy, seeing many visitors on the road as they were situated on one of the main access roads into the City of Buffalo and also all points west.

[Slide 13] We say it was built around 1835 because due to pandemic related shutdowns we have not been able to access some of the documents we need to check to confirm that. We do have a 2009 survey of the Town which says it was built in 1835, but in a letter written by Peggie herself, she explains how she conducted thorough research on the property and was able to date it to 1821. Unfortunately she didn’t leave notes about the actual research though, so we’re still working on following her footsteps in that. We might not have a confirmed construction date, but we know that the original white owners of that and who were the likely builders of the home. After the family sold the property in the mid 1800s, the house changed hands only 4 times before 1954 when Peggie Ames and her then wife Gladys purchased it.

[Slide 14] Here you can see the two earliest maps that we find the property on. The 1866 atlas just had simple squares to note the buildings, but the 1880 map does show, or attempt to to show, accurate footprints for each building and with that we can see that the footprint here is very similar to the current footprint of the property, so we can confirm that there has been very little changes to the building since at least the 1880s.

[Slide15]The Greek Revival style was the dominant domestic architectural style in the United States from 1830s-1850s. We find Greek Revival style buildings in all areas of the country that were settled by 1860. Again, it’s so popular that in it’s time, it’s actually called “The National Style”. It wasn’t until later, that architectural historians renamed it Greek Revival. As the name implies, this style borrows elements from classical architecture, and here on the screen you can see the common characteristics, the most notable being the low-pitched roofs, cornice lines with emphasized wide divided bands of trim (called a frieze, most often with frieze windows), and the odd-ranking, or that there’s an odd number of window/door openings. And lastly, especially with vernacular non-architect designed examples, you’ll see wings and hyphens, additions added on to the original main block of the building.

[Slide 16] Our work to identify and promote the story of Peggie Ames doesn’t just stop there. It’s not enough to document her story but it's important that we take the necessary steps to protect this resource. As Jeffry explained, it is at this house where Peggie is able to become her true self. It is at this house where Peggie begins her groundbreaking advocacy and outreach work. So how do we protect our historic resources? That path to protection is different for each resource depending on their history and level of endangerment, but most often the first step is getting listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The National Register is the federal government's official listing of the historic resources deemed worth of preservation for their historic significance. “Worthy of preservation” is bolded on purpose, because it's not just that you have to be historic, everything can have history, but to be listed in the National Register, you need to maintain a level of integrity, a level of physical authenticity relative to what makes it significant. The other major thing to know about the National Register is that it is honorary not regulatory. Listing in the National Register does not give the federal government to the ability to regulate the resource in any way. So you can get listed in the National Register and then tear it down the next day with no repercussion. While this designation does not provide legal protection of a property, the reason National Register status is often the first step in trying to save resources is because what National Register status does do is provide access to financial incentives that would help to improve and further protect the property.

[Slide 17] To be considered eligible, a property must meet at least one of the National Register Criteria for Evaluation. This involves examining the property’s age, history, and integrity of original elements. So based on the answers to those questions and the full history of the site, you need to assess which of these criteria that history meets. Criterion A relates to sites that have significance due to its association with historic events (either individual/singular events or a series of events/historic trends). Criterion B relates to sites that have significance due to its association with significant people or groups. Criterion C relates to sites that have significance due to their architecture, engineering, and/or other physical artistic elements. And then Criterion D relates to sites that have significance due to their known or believed connection to history or prehistory and adding to the archaeological record. For each criteria the National Park Service has created a listing of categories and subcategories to help further define how resources meet that criteria. So it’s not as simple as saying that a resource meets one or more of the criteria, you also have to identify which category or subcategory the resources falls under.

So with the Peggie Ames House we contend that the house is significant under Criterion A in the area of social history for its association with LGBTQ history during the 1970s, 1980s, and 90s. We also contend that the resource significant under Criterion B for its connection to Peggie Ames, the trailblazing transgender activist and advocate who had an impact on a local and national level. As I mentioned earlier, we’re still working out the details of the early history of this property. Once we’re able to confirm that construction date and the original owner, we’ll most likely also be adding that the property is significant under Criteria A and B for its association with the early founding of the community and with those early white settlers. And then also for Criterion C as an excellent example of Greek Revival architecture.

Legacy and Impact [Slide 18] Ames passed away in 2000 at the age of 79. Through her stubborn persistence, she paved the way for future generations of trans and gender-nonconforming people in Western New York and beyond. Though her name, as yet, does not appear in mainstream narratives of transgender history, she is one of the founding mothers of today’s transgender rights movement.