Delaware issued its first-ever state historical marker recognizing an LGBTQ+ site yesterday — the mayor and a queer state legislator both say it’s evidence of the area’s increasing inclusivity.
The Delaware Public Archives will place a historical marker recognizing Poodle Beach, a well-known southern area of Rehoboth Beach long popular with the local LGBTQ+ community.
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The marker was originally scheduled to be unveiled on June 27 during Pride Month, Maegan Peterman, director and state archivist at the Delaware Public Archives, told Metro Weekly. However, the metallic marker’s manufacturers worried that installing it on the beach’s shifting sands could cause it to eventually fall over and hurt someone, creating a legal liability.
So the marker’s creators requested additional time to figure out an alternate place to install it. It has since been installed at the intersection of Prospect Street and the South Boardwalk of Rehoboth Beach during LGBTQ+ History Month. The rest of Rehoboth Beach is well-known for its mile-long wooden promenade alongside various eateries, unique shops, and the Funland amusement park.
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Peterman noted that the state’s Historical Marker Program, administered by the Delaware Public Archives, is community-led, meaning that residents and community organizations apply for them. The Poodle Beach application arrived in 2020. Out of the state’s 721 historical markers, this is the first to designate an area of LGBTQ+ interest.
“Through the application process and the research we did to develop the marker text, they clearly demonstrated that Poodle Beach has been a really important gathering place for Delaware’s LGBTQ community, as well as others visiting Delaware. It served as a place where people could come and gather, openly and safely, for fun and relaxation during periods when that wasn’t necessarily possible elsewhere,” Peterman added.
According to LGBTQ Nation‘s sibling website Outsports, Poodle Beach’s LGBTQ+ history began in the 1930s when Louisa d’Andelot Carpenter — a lesbian du Pont family heiress who used to wear men’s suits and practice in the then-male-dominated arenas of equestrian and aviation — purchased a beachfront estate where gay artists and Hollywood elites visited.
The area in front of the Carpenter estate gradually gained popularity amongst closeted gay visitors who saw it as a social enclave where they could relax and sunbathe away from other families on the beach for the decades that followed. First known as “Lazy Gay Beach,” it later became “Poodle Beach” in the 1970s and hosted an annual drag volleyball game from 1988 until 2019.
“The Rehoboth we love was not handed to us. It was built over generations by people who came here, stayed and made it home. It reminds us that when this city makes room for everyone, all of us are better for it,” Rehoboth Beach Mayor Susan Stewart told Delaware Online.
Delaware state House Member Claire Snyder-Hall told the publication, “Personally, since moving here full time in 2011 with my wife, things have changed a lot for the better. Rehoboth has moved way beyond acceptance and to a place where the LGBTQ+ community is thriving and people are moving here from all over the country and they are totally fine – from what I can tell – with the LGBTQ+ community. In fact, I think that’s attracting people here.”
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