Currently: MMJ Marijuana Evaluation Center

Previously: Eagle Creek; JB’s House; Tree House; Libra

1884 Market Street
San Francisco, California

Status: No longer a bar

History

Summary

Details

At the outskirts of the Castro, if we define the area large enough to include Martuni’s, as Damron’s does, was Libra, one of the very first gay bars in the Castro. It opened in 1967, four years after the Missouri Mule, the same year as I-Do-Know, and the year before the Mint.

Libra lasted until 1972, when it became Tree House (1972-1973), where patrons could get brunch and a cocktail for 99 cents. It then became JB’s House (1973-1974), one of the many incarnations of bars owned by JB, a San Francisco bartender and bar owner who seemed to work everywhere. At varying times, he worked as a bartender at the Stud in SOMA, Nothing Special and the Pendulum in the Castro, and Deluxe and finally Trax on Haight Street. He died of AIDS-related complications in 1997.

JB’s House became Eagle Creek in 1975 until sometime in the 1980s, when it ceased to be a gay bar.

For a time in the 1990s, the former bar was the location for ACT/UP’s headquarters. More recently, Market Street Cooperative operated the largest medical marijuana dispensary in the Castro area. When that closed, it became MMJ Marijuana Evaluation Center, a medical clinic that provides patient evaluations for medical marijuana licenses.

Sources

Bajko, Matthew S., “Castro area medical cannabis dispensary wins approval,” Bay Area Reporter, February 3, 2011.

“Castro Business Ads from the 1970’s,” Uncle Donald’s Castro Street.

Damron Men’s Travel Guide, 2007, ISBN 978-092943558-9.

“Matchbox Gallery,” Uncle Donald’s Castro Street.

Uncle Donald’s Castro Street

Location

1884 Market Street, San Francisco