The Lesbian Bars and Gathering Spots of the Village
Throughout the history of LGBTQIA+ life in our neighborhoods, there is a rich lineage of spaces specifically intended for queer women and lesbians. Today, as we start Pride Month, let’s take a look at just a few of the many historic lesbian bars, clubs, and hangouts that called our neighborhoods home — from a century ago to the early 21st century.
Eve Adams’ Tea Room, 129 MacDougal Street
In 1925, Eve Kotchever (better known by her pseudonym, Eve Addams) opened her tearoom at 129 MacDougal Street. She was a Polish-Jewish lesbian immigrant known as the “queen of the third sex” and “man-hater,” and proudly reinforced this image with a sign on the door of her establishment that read “Men are admitted but not welcome.” The Greenwich Village Quill called the tearoom a place where ‘ladies prefer each other”. On June 17, 1926, the club was raided by police and Addams was charged with disorderly conduct and obscenity for her collection of short stories, Lesbian Love. She was deported and later said to have opened a lesbian club in Paris. Tragically after the Nazi invasion of France, she was deported to Auschwitz where she was killed. In 2003 Village Preservation proposed and secured landmark designation of 129 MacDougal Street, which was also included in the South Village Historic District in 2013.
Portofino Restaurant, 206 Thompson Street
This Italian restaurant was a discreet meeting place frequented on Friday evenings by lesbians in the 1950s and 60s. The 2013 groundbreaking Supreme Court decision that overturned the federal Defense of Marriage Act had its roots here in the 1963 meeting of Edith S. Windsor and Thea Clara Spyer. Windsor and Spyer began dating after meeting at Portofino in 1963. The couple married in Canada in 2007 and when Spyer died in 2009, she left her entire estate to Windsor. Windsor sued to have her marriage recognized in the U.S. after receiving a large tax bill from the inheritance, seeking to claim the federal estate tax exemption for surviving spouses.
The Defense of Marriage Act was enacted on September 21, 1996, and defined marriage for federal purposes as the union of one man and one woman, and allowed states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages granted under the laws of other states. United States v. Windsor, which was decided on June 26, 2013, was a landmark civil rights case in which the Supreme Court held that restricting U.S. federal interpretation of “marriage” and “spouse” to apply only to opposite-sex unions was unconstitutional. Windsor and Spyer also lived at 2 Fifth Avenue and 43 Fifth Avenue. 206 Thompson Street was landmarked as part of the South Village Historic District proposed by Village Preservation in 2013.
The Bagatelle, 86 University Place
From 1951 to 1959, 86 University Place housed ‘The Bagatelle,’ a popular lesbian bar, on the ground floor. Two noted lesbian writers, Audre Lorde and Ann Bannon, have spoken and written extensively about their time at the Bagatelle and how it shaped their experience in the lesbian community throughout the pre-Stonewall era.
The Bagatelle, or “the Bag,” was one of the most popular lesbian bars in Greenwich Village throughout the 1950s. Most pre-Stonewall gay and lesbian bars were run by the Mafia and frequently raided by the police, including the Bagatelle.
The small first floor that the Bagatelle occupied was split into two main spaces – a bar in the front, and a small dance floor in the back. The bar closed in 1959 and was replaced by Dardanelles Armenian Restaurant.
Sea Colony, 48-52 Eighth Avenue
From approximately 1955 through the 1960s, the Sea Colony was one of the most popular lesbian bars in Greenwich Village. The bar was a favorite of author and activist Joan Nestle, among others.
By the 1960s, the Sea Colony was a full-time lesbian bar with three main spaces. The first space, where the main entrance was located, had the bar’s only functioning egress with uncovered windows, making it the most public. In this room, the bar was on the left, and there were a few small tables and some bathrooms.
The second room was in what was formerly a restaurant area and was accessible through the rear of the main bar. This portion of Sea Colony provided table service.
The “back room” was accessible through this center space and was where illegal dancing took place. Police raids often happened in this back room, to the point that the community became prepared for such events. At the first sign of a raid, a button would be pressed that turned on a red light in the back room, prompting those who were dancing to scatter to tables and pretend as if they were just having a drink.
Bar Room 432 / Mother, 432 West 14th Street
A portion of the ground floor and basement of this historic market building in the Meatpacking District was the home of Bar Room 432 from 1990 to 1996. In 1996, it was reopened under the name Mother, which stayed open until 2000.
The space was a popular nightlife venue for the Clit Club, MEAT, Jackie 60, Martha@Mother, Click + Drag, and other parties.
The Clit Club was a “floating” queer and sex-positive lesbian nightclub that promoted safe sex and existed as an intergenerational, multi-racial, and mixed class venue for women. The party was founded by Julie Tolentino and Jocelyn Taylor in 1990 and ran until 2002.
Learn more about our neighborhood’s LGBTQ+ and queer history in Village Preservation’s Civil Rights and Social Justice Map