Fodor's Expert Review Gay Street

A curved, one-block lane lined with small row houses, Gay Street was probably named after an early landowner and definitely had nothing to do with gay rights. In the 1930s, this tiny thoroughfare and nearby Christopher Street became famous nationwide after Ruth McKenney began to publish somewhat zany autobiographical stories based on what happened when she and her sister moved to No. 14 from Ohio. The stories, first published in the New Yorker, birthed many adaptations, including the 1953 Broadway musical Wonderful Town and the 1942 and 1955 movies My Sister Eileen.