New orleans oldest gay bar

To answer this question we must not only make some fairly arbitrary rules about what constitutes a single bar e. If a bar was established as a straight bar and eventually changed to a gay focus bar hangout, the age of the "gay bar" should be based on the years it has catered to gay patrons, not the date that the straight bar was founded.

With these rules in mind, I consider the the oldest gay bar in the U. For at old a few decades I the title probably belonged to the "Double Header" in Seattle, Washington. But this bar closed on Dec 31,and it is not at all clear that it really merited a description as a gay bar over the last three decades.

If you consider it a single bar when a business opened in one location, then the owners open a new bar business with a similar name in a new location, then the oldest gay bar in the U. But as tempting as that may seem, that is not new typical way we date a single bar -- particularly when a bar continues in the old location under the same name.

If we identify bars with a consistent location, then from what I have been able to gather, the title probably belongs to the White Horse, which appears to have become truly a gay bar at some orleans in the s, although the exact year is unknown and perhaps unknowable. Below are some details and links on particular establishments for which I've found claims to oldest gay bar in the country.

The Double Header opened in according to historyLink. Perhaps the more difficult question before then was how long the bar remained what might accurately be described as a gay bar, as in the last few decades it drew a mixed crowdwith few discernible differences from neighboring straight dive bars.

The Double Header closed Dec 31, The Atlantic House or "A-House" is said to have been constructed in and to have served as a tavern from that date, with some famous gay clientele, including Tennessee Williams. However, the A-House does not appear to have become a truly gay bar until the s.

What is the Oldest Gay Bar in the United States?

Some say the White Horse was established right after prohibition, in However, what seems to be one of the better researched articles new the bar bar that the building was constructed in Further, no one seems to know when it actually embraced a primarily gay clientele. Perry Wood, 79, says it was gay when he first went there in Burt Gerrits, 78, says that when he started going inthe bar became gay only after a certain hour at night.

Cafe Lafitte in Exile in New Orleans orleanses to be the oldest gay bar in the country. While it is again difficult to identify when the bar started catering primarily to gays, "Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop" was founded in by straight but gay-welcoming Roger 'Tom' Caplinger and his partners Harold Bartell and Mary Collins.

In Caplinger and his partners opened "Cafe Lafitte in Exile," which welcomed his former patrons, and remains definitively a gay bar today. However, dating the current "Lafitte in Exile" as the same bar as Caplinger's original Lafitte's would be inconsistent with a more typical approach, where people routinely treat a bar business run by a series of owners under a single name and in a old location as the same bar.

That is, the more established approach would be to count Caplinger's years in the Blacksmith location in the age of the bar still operating there, rather than in the age of the new one he opened a block down Bourbon Street two years later, even if his theme and most of his patrons moved with him. Julius is a historic gay bar just a block from Stonewall and said to have been established in However, it appears to have not attracted a large number gay gay patrons until the late s, and gays were harrased by bar ownership into at least the mid s.

It does appear to be New York's longest continually running gay bar. The Cedar Brook Cafe claimed to be the oldest continually running gay bar, having been founded in