Explore the real-world places that appear in Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include Hell's Kitchen Apartment, The Cubbyhole Bar, Ames's Brooklyn Loft, Planned Parenthood - Manhattan, The Port Authority Bus Terminal and 9 more.
West 43rd Street & 10th Avenue — Reina and Aunt Pauline's home
Reina Hidalgo lives in this modest Hell's Kitchen apartment with her Aunt Pauline, a Puerto Rican immigrant who raised her after her mother's death. The apartment is where Reina's life implodes when she discovers her girlfriend Ames is pregnant, and where she grapples with her post-transition identity. Aunt Pauline's presence grounds the novel—her acceptance of Reina's transition, despite her initial shock, becomes central to the story's emotional arc.
Hell's Kitchen developed as a working-class Irish immigrant neighborhood in the 19th century, eventually becoming home to successive waves of immigrants including Puerto Ricans starting in the 1950s. By the 2000s when the novel is set, it remained a diverse, affordable neighborhood in Manhattan.
Hell's Kitchen is now a trendy, expensive neighborhood of converted brownstones, luxury apartments, and upscale restaurants. However, some rent-controlled buildings and family-run businesses from earlier eras still persist.
West 12th Street & 4th Street — LGBTQ+ bar in the West Village
The Cubbyhole is a dive bar central to Reina's social world and queer community. It's where Reina spent years before her transition, and where she reconnects with her transgender and cisgender lesbian friends. The bar represents the safety and community of New York's LGBTQ+ culture—a place where Reina's identity is unquestioned and celebrated, contrasting sharply with the isolation she feels in her personal crisis.
The Cubbyhole opened in 1992 as a lesbian bar in the West Village, a neighborhood that has been the epicenter of LGBTQ+ culture in New York since the Stonewall uprising in 1969. It became one of the last remaining lesbian bars in Manhattan as many closed due to gentrification.
The Cubbyhole continues to operate as a popular lesbian bar and LGBTQ+ gathering space, decorated with bead necklaces and stickers covering every surface. It remains a historic landmark of queer New York and a beloved community institution.
Visit: The Cubbyhole (bar)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn — Ames and Katrina's home
Ames lived in this Brooklyn loft with Reina before they broke up. When Reina discovers Ames is pregnant with Katrina's baby, she begins a complicated journey to co-parent. The loft becomes a site of negotiation—where Reina, Ames, and Katrina attempt to build an unconventional family. It's where the three protagonists learn to navigate their new reality, share space, and ultimately commit to raising the baby together.
Williamsburg, Brooklyn transformed from an industrial neighborhood and immigrant enclave in the late 20th century to become ground zero for Brooklyn gentrification starting in the 1990s. By the 2010s, it was a hub for young professionals and creative workers, full of converted warehouses and artist lofts.
Williamsburg is now one of New York's most expensive and trendy neighborhoods, filled with luxury condos, high-end restaurants, and boutiques. Few affordable artist lofts remain, replaced by upscale residential and commercial development.
Second Avenue & 16th Street — Healthcare clinic
Reina visits Planned Parenthood for healthcare related to her transition and endocrine care. The clinic represents the medical infrastructure that supports trans people's health—a crucial resource that Reina relies on. It's a place of both routine care and existential questions about her body and identity, grounding the novel's engagement with the realities of trans life in contemporary America.
Planned Parenthood opened its Manhattan clinic in 1923 as part of Margaret Sanger's birth control movement. The organization expanded nationally to provide comprehensive reproductive healthcare and family planning services throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.
Planned Parenthood's Manhattan health center continues to provide contraception, STI testing, cancer screenings, and transgender health services to thousands of patients annually. It remains a vital healthcare resource for low-income New Yorkers.
Visit: Planned Parenthood - Manhattan Health Center (historic site)
42nd Street & 8th Avenue — Travel hub and transit center
The Port Authority Bus Terminal serves as a liminal space in the novel where characters arrive and depart, representing movement, transition, and the flux of New York life. It's where Reina confronts her past and future—a transit point both literally and metaphorically as she navigates her changing identity and relationships. The terminal embodies the gritty, transient energy of New York.
The Port Authority Bus Terminal opened in 1950 and quickly became the busiest bus station in the world. It was designed as a major transportation hub connecting New York City to regional destinations and has served millions of commuters and travelers since its inception.
The Port Authority Bus Terminal remains one of the busiest bus stations globally, serving over 200,000 passengers daily. Recent renovations have modernized parts of the facility, though it retains its character as a somewhat chaotic urban transit hub.
Visit: Port Authority Bus Terminal (landmark)
5th Avenue & West 4th Street — Greenwich Village landmark
Washington Square Park represents queer New York history and contemporary LGBTQ+ life. Reina and her friends navigate this iconic Greenwich Village space, which has long been a gathering spot for trans and queer people. The park embodies the literary and cultural heritage of queer New York that Reina is both inheriting and questioning throughout the novel.
Washington Square Park was built in 1826 as a public cemetery and later converted to a park. It became the heart of Greenwich Village bohemian culture in the early 20th century and was the epicenter of the 1969 Stonewall uprising's aftermath. The neighborhood has been central to LGBTQ+ culture for over a century.
Washington Square Park remains one of New York's most iconic public spaces, filled daily with tourists, students, street musicians, and locals. The area retains its identity as a hub of LGBTQ+ culture, though gentrification has transformed much of surrounding Greenwich Village.
Visit: Washington Square Park (park)
Times Square Area — Corporate workspace
Reina works in a corporate office in Midtown, navigating workplace dynamics as a trans woman. The office represents the straight corporate world where Reina's identity is both invisible and hypervisible—she must constantly navigate being perceived as a woman after years of transition. Her workplace experiences reflect the tensions between her authentic self and professional performance.
Midtown Manhattan developed as the corporate headquarters of America's largest corporations throughout the 20th century. Times Square emerged as the entertainment and commercial center, with office towers built starting in the 1920s through the 21st century.
Midtown remains the corporate heart of Manhattan, filled with skyscrapers, corporate offices, hotels, and tourist attractions. Times Square is one of the world's busiest and most famous intersections, known for massive digital billboards and crowds.
Boardwalk & Stillwell Avenue, Brooklyn — Beach and amusement area
The characters visit Coney Island as an escape from the intensity of their situation in Manhattan. The boardwalk represents freedom, nostalgia, and a break from the pressures of New York City life. It's a space where Reina, Ames, and Katrina can be together outside the confines of their apartment drama, enjoying simple pleasures and remembering what brought them together.
Coney Island developed as a beach resort and amusement destination in the late 19th century, becoming famous for its boardwalk, amusement park, and arcade games. It was a working-class destination for New Yorkers seeking escape from the city and has been iconic in American culture since the 1920s.
Coney Island remains a popular beach destination and amusement area with the famous wooden Cyclone roller coaster, Luna Park, and the historic boardwalk. It attracts millions of visitors annually and retains its character as a working-class beach community.
Visit: Coney Island (park)
10th Avenue (Gansevoort to 34th Street) — Elevated park
The High Line represents New York's transformation and gentrification. Reina walks this elevated park as she processes her emotional turmoil and changing life. The High Line embodies both the beauty and the alienation of contemporary New York—a reclaimed industrial space that's now a trendy destination, mirroring Reina's own experience of reinvention and the complicated feelings around being transformed by the city.
The High Line was an elevated railroad built in 1934 to move freight in Manhattan's West Side industrial district. It was abandoned in 1980 but was restored as a public park starting in 2006, becoming a major model for urban reclamation projects.
The High Line is now one of New York's most popular public parks, attracting millions of visitors annually. It features landscaping, art installations, food vendors, and views of the Hudson River, and has spurred significant real estate development and gentrification in surrounding neighborhoods.
Visit: The High Line (park)
Greenwich Village — Educational institution
NYU appears in the characters' backstory as a location of education and young adulthood. The university represents Reina's intellectual life and the educated, cosmopolitan sphere she inhabits. Greenwich Village's association with NYU connects to the broader queer cultural history of the neighborhood where Reina exists and moves through the city.
New York University was founded in 1831 and expanded throughout Greenwich Village in the 20th century, making it a major presence in the neighborhood. The university became intertwined with Village bohemian and queer culture.
NYU is now one of the largest private universities in the United States, with extensive facilities throughout Greenwich Village. The university's expansion has significantly contributed to gentrification of the historic neighborhood.
Visit: New York University (landmark)
South Street Seaport waterfront — Waterfront green space
The East River Park waterfront represents spaces where Reina finds peace and reflection. The park provides a counterpoint to the intensity of her relationships and work life—a place where she can think clearly about her identity, her future, and her complicated feelings about motherhood and family. The river and open sky offer emotional breathing room.
East River Park was created in the early 20th century as part of Robert Moses' public works projects. The waterfront area developed as both a working harbor and recreational space for Lower East Side residents.
East River Park is a popular waterfront destination with walking paths, sports facilities, and gardens. Recent major renovations have upgraded the park with new landscaping, seating areas, and improved waterfront access.
Visit: East River Park (park)
Midtown — Medical facility and birthing space
The hospital is where the climax of the novel takes place—where Katrina gives birth to the baby that will bind Reina, Ames, and Katrina together. The maternity ward becomes a space of profound transformation and vulnerability. Reina experiences her first encounter with motherhood and commitment in this sterile, medical environment, where biological reproduction meets chosen family and queer love.
Manhattan has numerous major hospitals built throughout the 20th and 21st centuries to serve the dense urban population. These institutions have been centers of medical innovation and have evolved to recognize diverse family structures and LGBTQ+ needs.
Manhattan's hospitals continue to serve as major medical centers, with many now explicitly welcoming LGBTQ+ patients and recognizing diverse family structures. Modern birthing practices increasingly accommodate non-traditional family arrangements.
Ludlow Street & Delancey — Historic immigrant neighborhood
The Lower East Side represents New York's history of immigration, queer culture, and community resilience. Reina moves through this neighborhood as part of her exploration of queer New York history and contemporary life. The area carries the weight of communities who have built lives and identities in New York—previous generations of immigrants, Puerto Ricans, and queer people that contextualize Reina's own struggle for belonging.
The Lower East Side was the primary immigration portal for European Jews, Italians, and Puerto Ricans starting in the 1850s. It developed as a dense, working-class neighborhood and later became a center of counterculture, punk rock, and LGBTQ+ activism from the 1960s onward.
The Lower East Side remains a historic neighborhood with a mix of preserved tenement buildings, galleries, vintage shops, and restaurants. It still retains multicultural character but has undergone significant gentrification, with many longtime residents displaced by rising rents.
Visit: Lower East Side Historic District (historic site)
Flatbush Avenue & Grand Army Plaza — Major urban park
Prospect Park serves as a Brooklyn sanctuary where the characters find respite from the chaos of their lives. The park represents growth, natural beauty, and the possibility of healing. For Reina navigating her identity and new relationships, Prospect Park offers space for reflection and the emotional reset needed to process her complicated feelings about family and commitment.
Prospect Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux and opened in 1867 as Brooklyn's answer to Central Park. It has been a beloved public space for Brooklyn residents for over 150 years, featuring meadows, forests, a lake, and recreational facilities.
Prospect Park remains one of America's most popular urban parks, attracting over 10 million visitors annually. It features extensive facilities for walking, cycling, sports, and cultural events, and remains a vital green space for Brooklyn.
Visit: Prospect Park (park)
More by Torrey Peters: All Torrey Peters books
More novels set in New York City: Browse all New York City books on Map A Story
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