05/18/2026
A Place for Us
Gay Life at Chicago’s Belmont Rocks
By Owen Keehnen
Starting around 1993, Richard Dayhoff began what was to be a decade of morning sojourns to the Belmont Rocks before heading to the design studio.
“I would usually get there around 6:30 a.m.” said Dayhoff. “I would start my mornings with green tea and meditating and writing with pen and paper at the Rocks. I would be on my same rock every day. My rock was in a little cove right down by the waterline—so tranquil and hidden away. I would touch those rocks and just breathe. I would sit there writing and having my green tea and enjoying a great view of downtown. That was the place that began my day. Most days, I would be there an hour or an hour and a half just writing, drawing, and creating.
I sketched a lot of my designs in the margins of those journals. I’m a Scorpio, so I am also very connected to the water. The women’s clothing designs I drew there were black, but the design and the fabric tended to be very fluid. I was doing a lot with draping and sort of the quiet luxury that came about because of the Rocks and water influence.’
Dayhoff said he loved the freedom of being at the Rocks so early in the day.
“If the weather was right, I would be n**e. There was a whole community that only came there early in the mornings. We each had our own spots. I went every day of the year, so in the winter or when the Rocks were slippery, I stayed by the top of the Rocks, but I still went there every day.”
