The first gay-related businesses in the Castro were gay bars — the Missouri Mule in 1963, followed by Libra and I-Do-Know in 1967 and then the Mint in 1968.
Then after the Summer of Love, gay people — particularly gay hippies — started to flood into the mostly working-class Scandinavian and Irish neighborhood, and new gay-owned and gay-friendly businesses opened: restaurants, bookstores and other retail shops, hotels, and bathhouses.
But still, bars remained a strong part of the neighborhood’s gay life, and any history of gay life would be incomplete without covering the history of gay bars. For generations, gay people could only surreptitiously meet other gays through clandestine hookups in parks or the piers. Later, certain bars started to be known for a particular sort of crowd — leather bars, upscale “sweater queen” bars, drag and trans-friendly bars, and more — and though bars could be subject to dangerous police raids, they were often the only opportunity for gay people to find their own.
Here, then, is our work-in-progress history of every place in the Castro that is now or (coming soon) ever was a gay bar.
Defining Our Terms
Before we can explore the history of gay bars in the Castro, we have to determine whether they are bars, whether they are gay, and whether they’re in the Castro. If you wonder why some businesses were included and others were not, we explore our definitions in more detail.
List of Gay Bars in the Castro
Current LGBT Bars
- 440 Castro (440 Castro Street)
- Badlands (4121 18th Street)
- Beaux (2344 Market Street)
- Blackbird (2124 Market Street)
- Blush (476 Castro Street)
- The Cafe (2369 Market Street)
- The Edge (4149 18th Street)
- Harvey’s (500 Castro Street)
- Hi Tops (2247 Market Street)
- Last Call (3988 18th Street)
- LookOut (3600 16th Street)
- Martuni’s (4 Valencia)
- Midnight Sun (4067 18th Street)
- The Mint (1942 Market Street)
- The Mix (4086 18th Street)
- Moby Dick (4049 18th Street)
- The Pilsner Inn (225 Church Street)
- QBar (456 Castro Street)
- Toad Hall (4148 18th Street)
- Twin Peaks Tavern (401 Castro Street)
Quasi-Bars
- Cafe Flore (2298 Market Street)
- Swirl (572 Castro Street)
Straight/Mixed Bars That Used to be LGBT Bars
- Churchill (198 Church Street) – was the Transfer, the Bar on Church
- Lucky 13 (2140 Market Street) – was Mind Shaft, Alfie’s, Prism, 2140 Market, Industrial Dance Company, High Chaparral
- The Residence (now 718 14th Street) – was the Galleon Supper Club)
Former LGBT Bars That Are No Longer Bars
- 469 Castro Street (now Slurp Noodle Bar; was Nothing Special, Special, Headquarters, Night Shift)
- 482 Castro Street (now part of Walgreen’s; was Toad Hall, DJ’s, the Phoenix)
- 506 Castro Street (vacant site of the Body Shop; was the Midnight Sun, City Dump, Midnight Sun again)
- 1760/1772 Market Street (now 1772 Market; was Rebel, Triple Crown, Octavia Lounge, Michael’s, Carta)
- 1884 Market Street (now MMJ Marijuana Evaluation Center; was Libra, Tree House, JB’s House, Eagle Creek)
- 2029 Market Street (vacant; was Mecca, Gingerfruit)
- 2097 Market Street (residential; was Naked Grape, Tool Box, Hustle Inn)
- 2100 Market Street (formerly Home Restaurant; was Rear End Bar at Truck Stop, Hideaway at Church Street Station)
- 2166 Market Street (Klotz Watches & Clocks; was Cardi’s, Balcony, Academy)
- 2223 Market Street (now Pesce; was the Purple Pickle)
- 2275 Market Street (now Books, Inc.; was the Shed)
- 10 Sanchez Street (now residential; was Scott’s Pit)
- 290 Sanchez Street (now Makli Restaurant; was the Jackhammer)
If we’ve missed anything or you wish to challenge whether something should or should not be included, we’d love to hear from you.
It would be interesting to know the history of the Folsom street bars, e.g. Lone Star Saloon, Powerhouse, etc.
Yes, I definitely plan to do that, but I need to do a lot more research first. I started with the Castro because I already had a lot of the info for it. There’s a brief overview under Neighborhoods > South of Market, but it’s pretty brief so far. I plan to do a bar-by-bar history once I’ve managed to complete the research.
Talk to Jose Guevara, bartender at Powerhouse. He has done pretty much most of the SOMA bar history and actually made a “monopoly” style game out of it. Could save you a lot of time.
Excellent tip! I’ll do that.
TO WHOM THIS MAY CONCERN:
Please don’t take this the wrong way but I am having the hardest time trying to find a single article about the Missouri Mule that doesn’t claim that the mule was opened in 63. And that is simply not true It was opened by my grandfather and his business partner in the 30s. I have not wanted to ruffle any feathers because of the love and respect for the entire LBGTQ community. And I will continue to support the community in any way I possibly can. All I need is for one person to understand that in putting out all this inaccurate information on the date it is completely wiping out my own families history. As well as a little bit of San Francisco’s true history. Which is so hard to watch happen. All I am asking is that people stop reporting that the bar “FIRST OPENED ITS DOORS” in 63 or was
“FIRST BUILT” in63 or “OPENED” in63
Beacuse the truth is the bar was both “CLOSED” & “REOPENED” in 63 to rebrand and expand itself shortly after it was purchased from Berkley police officer Wayne Knutila and his business partners who purchased the bar a decade earlier in 53 from my grandfather Hans K. Lund and his business partner Glen Swenson who were the mules original owners..
reopening for business a short time later under the same name officially becoming the first openly gay bar in San Franciscos history A fact that I could not be prouder of.
Still if preservingvhistory is the goal here I don’t understand how changing a single word IE: from opened to reopened is not a priority as rewriting any part of history (even the smallest bit.) Does not preserve history it replaces it with a story and our true history is lost to us one little piece at a time. I’ve written to so many people about this not to gain recognition but to makesure that the most accurate version of our history is available to all of us if we want it. Many of those people have graciously written back stating that they would be more than happy to update the bars history. And have yet to do so. Perhaps they assumed I was asking for more than a simple change of a word
I’m not sure all I know is that if I stop trying its not just a peice of my own personal history being wiped out San Francisco will also be loosing a piece of theirs which belongs to all of us
Thank You
for your time and consideration
Respectfully,
M.M.V
Hi Mary,
Our intention with the bar posts is simply to discuss their history as an LGBTQ bar, and we generally don’t have the means to explain the establishment’s prior history. However, in re-reading our description, I see that it wasn’t clear that we were saying that the Missouri Mule “became a gay bar in 1963,” and could be misinterpreted as “first opened to the public as a gay bar.” I will adjust that. Thank you for providing a little extra history about this landmark location.
Kevin
Did I miss Cafe San Marcos that was on Market Street on your list or is that’s what’s listed as Cafe? Sunday afternoons at CSM for Blue Moons before heading off to the I-Beam Tea Dance! It was pretty exclusively gay in the early 1980’s.
Hi Mark,
Yes, the Café San Marcos changed their name to The Café in the mid-1990s.
I lived in the Castro from February 1970 to June 1972. I tell people now that I moved to the Castro before it was gay! There were already many gay people living in the neighborhood, of course, but when I arrived in early 1970 it was not known as a gay neighborhood. There were only two gay bars in the Castro itself, plus a couple up on Market Street which (at that time) I didn’t really think of as part of the neighborhood.
The two I’m talking about were the Pendulum and another smaller bar, on 18th Street, that I never actually went into. I was 18 when I arrived, after dropping out of college midway through my freshman year. I came out a few months after my arrival, and the Pendulum was the first gay bar I ever entered. I was underage, of course, but the Pendulum at that time rarely checked ID.
The Pendulum did not have an African-American crowd at that time. That came later. It was a very popular bar with a crowd of white gay men in their 20s and 30s. At that time, the big divide (although generally friendly) was between the more established gays–who were well groomed, nicely dressed, and held jobs–and the counter-culture hippies with long hair, beards, and tattered jeans. The word “hippie” was already passe. We called ourselves the freaks, and there were many of us living in the neighborhood. Many guys I knew had been part of the Haight-Asbury summer of love, and had migrated over the hill to the Castro when the Haight got burned out.
The main bar in town for the younger, counter-culture gay men was The Stud, down in the Folsom neighborhood I never felt unwelcome in the Pendulum, even though I often had the longest hair in the room. But it wasn’t really my crowd. Everything changed when The Midnight Sun opened in earlu 1971, in its original location on Castro Street. The Sun courted the younger, counter-culture crowd. The Cockettes performed for the grand opening. Soon I was spending almost every night at the Sun, drinking cheap beers, cruising, and meeting up with my freak friends.
The next part of the story is something I never see mentioned in histories of the Castro. Sometime around the summer of 1971, all of the old Irish dive bars on Castro closed and re-opened as gay bars. That’s when Twin Peaks opened, and Toad Hall and Moby Dick and others. In a period of just a few months, the whole Castro scene changed dramatically. Gay men were coming from all over the city to the Castro bars. And when the bars closed at 2am, the sidewalks on Castro were lined on both sides with a crowd of horny men making one last try to find some to pick up for the night.
Given the political structure of the city at that time (Harvey Milk had not yet arrived in town), I have to believe that someone reached an agreement with the police and city government to open so many gay bars within two blocks in such a short time. We weren’t very far from the days when gay bars were still raided regularly. But I have never seen any commentary on the rapid transformation that happened.
There was some initial pushback from the long time neighbors when everything changed so dramatically. I remember going to a neighborhood meeting. I believe it was organized by neighbors unhappy about the change, but it was open meeting and many gay residents came as well. A woman who owned a fish and chips shop on 18th Street spoke up about her son getting sexually harrassed on the sidewalk as he walked home. We all knew her son–a very nice guy in his 20s, and very good looking. the response from the gay crowd was laughter mixed with a few whistles and catcalls. We hadn’t heard of Me Too.
At any rate, the opposition died down quickly, and everyone in the neighborhood got back to fairly peaceful co-existence. I moved away in 1972, so I missed the real peak of the gayborhood. But I would still love the know the behind-the-scenes story of how all those gay bars got green lighted in such a short time.
Hi Nick
I have been doing a series of articles. The Gay Elder. You may enjoy them. I moved to 7 States Street in September of 1973. I am basically sharing my experience. Barnard Street Tattler.com hope you will enjoy it.
Best, Tom
The midnight Sun was next to harvys on Castro. Noy at the Body shop
Hmmm. Thank you for your help. The address I had from Uncle Donald’s Castro (now TheCastro.net) was 506 Castro Street, which would have been the same building as Harvey’s but two doors down (504 Castro Street was in between). 506 is currently the home of Project Juice, a smoothie and juice place. 504 is currently empty but most recently was Puff n Stuff, a smoke shop. Is that wrong? Was it at 504, not 506? I will seek some more documentation – I believe I may have copies of the Damron’s Guides from the early 1970s. (In any event, the Body Shop left so long ago that the listing should be updated regardless.)
Hi Royal Scribe: The Polk’s San Francisco City Directories for 1975 and 1976 list the original Midnight Sun at 506 Castro Street. Hope this helps.
Midnight sun was just 1-2 doors north on Castro from Elephant walk. Around the current Sisters Cafe. Look at the photos on Castro Street Seen in the former Puff and Stuff. If you look closely, you can see the awning that says midnight sun. One over from the fish and chip place mentioned before.