Post by Logan on Jan 15, 2016 19:48:30 GMT -6
Gangway, San Francisco’s Oldest Gay Bar, Likely to Close Soon
In the 1960s and 70s, before the Castro became San Francisco’s queer mecca, the Polk District was the center of the city’s gay scene.
And one of the anchors on the block of Larkin Street between Geary and Myrtle was Gangway, a nautically themed establishment that opened in 1910 and has been a gay bar since at least 1961, making it the city’s oldest.
Sadly, SFist reports that Gangway — shown above with a boat protruding from the facade — “seems likely to close very soon,” after it was bought by straight owners who plan to replace it with something called “Daddy Bones”:
Continue reading at www.towleroad.com/2016/01/gangway-san-franciscos-oldest-gay-bar-likely-close-soon/ .
In the 1960s and 70s, before the Castro became San Francisco’s queer mecca, the Polk District was the center of the city’s gay scene.
And one of the anchors on the block of Larkin Street between Geary and Myrtle was Gangway, a nautically themed establishment that opened in 1910 and has been a gay bar since at least 1961, making it the city’s oldest.
Sadly, SFist reports that Gangway — shown above with a boat protruding from the facade — “seems likely to close very soon,” after it was bought by straight owners who plan to replace it with something called “Daddy Bones”:
Gangway is a well loved but rarely busy old-man bar which has consistently landed on SFist lists of beloved dives and Best Old Man Bars. And along with The Cinch, it’s the last of two gay bars in the Polk Gulch environs, which was home to about a half dozen as recently as the last decade. In the 1960s and 70s, before the Castro became the city’s gay ghetto, it was the Polk where the first Gay Pride parade happened, and where the center of gay life existed each night.
Sadly, even though San Francisco was once a city that boasted gay bars tucked into neighborhoods all over town, from the Financial District to Pacific Heights, that’s no longer the case. Other holdouts like Marlena’s in Hayes Valley (now Brass Tacks) have closed in recent years and seen similar fates as what seems to be befalling the old Gangway.
Sadly, even though San Francisco was once a city that boasted gay bars tucked into neighborhoods all over town, from the Financial District to Pacific Heights, that’s no longer the case. Other holdouts like Marlena’s in Hayes Valley (now Brass Tacks) have closed in recent years and seen similar fates as what seems to be befalling the old Gangway.
Continue reading at www.towleroad.com/2016/01/gangway-san-franciscos-oldest-gay-bar-likely-close-soon/ .