Last Saturday, which was my last full day in New York City, I made a brief late afternoon foray into Greenwich Village. Been awhile since I’d been there, but I have a special fondness for the Village. Not because of the Beats or bohemians or the like, which are certainly interesting, but because I stayed in an apartment there for a couple of weeks in August 1983.

The place I stayed back then had a Sheridan Square address, so I wandered over that way, which isn’t far from the excellent Washington Square Park, though it was a little chilly on Saturday to fully appreciate it. Pretty soon I came across a place I’d heard and read about, but hadn’t fixed in my mind as being where it is: Stonewall National Monument, on Christopher St.

As national monuments go, Stonewall is small, about 7.7 acres. It’s also new, designated only in June 2016, near the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots.

NYC Parks has a short history of the place: “Located at 51-53 Christopher Street, Stonewall Inn was formerly two adjacent two-story stable houses erected in 1843 and 1846. After numerous alterations, the two buildings were joined into a restaurant by the 1930s. By the 1950s the place was known as Stonewall Inn Restaurant.

“In 1966, it closed for renovations, and reopened in the following year as a private club known as Stonewall Inn – a bar and dance hall which, like numerous local establishments, catered to the homosexual community of Greenwich Village.

“In the early hours of June 28, 1969, police raided the Stonewall Inn and a melee ensued in which 13 people were arrested. Word of the raid and the resistance to it soon spread, and the next day hundreds gathered to protest the crackdown and advocate the legalization of gay bars.

“Further protests erupted in early July, and on July 27, a group of activists organized the first gay and lesbian march, from Washington Square to Stonewall. The events of that summer and their aftermath are often credited as the flashpoint for the gay rights movement in the United States.”

In 1983, I had no notion the Stonewall Inn was there. I’d heard the story of the riots a few years before, but I don’t remember anything to mark the site when I was there, and by then the building was being used for something else anyway.

Christopher Park, which is across the street from Stonewall Inn, was being renovated at that time. “The restoration of Christopher Park was initiated in 1983 by the Friends of Christopher Park, a community volunteer group organized in the late 1970s to maintain and beautify the park,” NYC Parks says.

“Under the direction of landscape architect Philip Winslow, over $130,000 was spent in order to restore the site to its 19th-century splendor. The renovated park, including a new gate, benches, lampposts, walkways, and numerous trees and shrubs, was officially reopened in 1986.”

This time around, I spent a few minutes resting at Christopher Park, even though it was distinctly cool by that time in the afternoon. (In New York, one walks a lot, or should.) There are three memorials in the small park. One is “Gay Liberation” by George Segal, unveiled in 1992.

A more traditional statue, erected in the 1930s, also stands in the park: Phillip Sheridan, by Joseph P. Pollia.

Finally, according to NYC Parks, there’s a flagpole in the park honoring the 1861 Fire Zouaves. Damn, how did I miss that? What the ’61 Fire Zouaves need is a statue on the site, or somewhere in New York. A bright, colorful statue.