The lease to the space housing the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Historical Society exhibit is ending at the end of this month, forcing the largest LGBT exhibit in the United States to move out of its neighborhood.

The exhibit, currently located on Castro and 18th Streets and leased from JPMorgan Chase, will close Oct. 18 to allow time for the society to move out. All items will then return to the main center at 657 Mission St., said Paul Boneberg, the GLBT Historical Society executive director.

The space will go back to the owner of the building after December because Chase cannot open a branch at that location.

"The community is not down with it at all," said Alan Guttirez, a 20-year-old sociology major at SF State who has been volunteering at the exhibit for about four months.

Joseph Kasarda, the manager of the newly built Chase branch on Market and 15th Streets, said then-Washington Mutual was going to put a branch there, but it got denied at a public hearing.

Washington Mutual then worked out a deal with the GLBT Historical Society so that the society could get a year's lease for free.

"We wanted something that would be good for the neighborhood," Kasarda said.

The bank was allowed to put two ATMs at that location but never did because of the reorganization involving the merging of Washington Mutual and Chase. Chase could still install the ATMs for the two months that follow the closure of the historical society exhibit, but Kasarda said it wouldn't be worth it.

Boneberg said the exhibit has been very successful, as it drew in 25,000 people.

"Now we know it's something the public will support, so we'll try to do it again," he said.

Boneberg said they were hoping to have another exhibit in the Castro but that it wouldn't be possible until spring 2010 because of how much time it takes to organize a new exhibit, and a lack of space. Every exhibit is new.

"It's organized by historians who have a message to put out," Boneberg said.

Boneberg said the exhibit cost about $200,000 and got support from the city, Chase and other corporations.

There is a $3 admission fee that contributed to covering the expenses, but "there is free admission in many situations," Boneberg said.

The admission fee will be waived for the whole month of October.

The volunteers are very dedicated to their job and come from very different backgrounds. After the exhibit closes, some of them may try to work at the archive department of the society like Guttirez and the others.

Beatrice Lee, an unemployed core volunteer who has been working at the exhibit since its opening in October 2008, got her job through her cousin, who is on the GLBT Historical Society board of directors.

"Realizing I had this animosity against gays and lesbians, this is exactly what I needed to do to have a better understanding," Lee said. "It's more than tolerance; it's the love of human diversity."

Visitors still have another month to visit the highlight of the exhibit, which is Harvey Milk's suit. Milk wore the suit when Dan White, a fellow supervisor, fatally shot him in 1978. The coroner in charge of Milk's body preserved the suit because he did not want to throw away a piece of history, said David Van Virden, an online services volunteer at the exhibit.