The address proved too difficult to locate, but the fact that there was a gay bar scene in the relatively small city of Joliet (famous for its 1858 prison) amazed me. Also noted in both guides is a bar called Trade Winds, with a Highway 66 address.
#Gay bar chicago sign series#
I draped the rainbow flag over the door to mark the location and snapped a series of Polaroid pictures to document the site. Fittingly, a lawyer’s office now exists where Esquire once did. This third edition Damron Guide chronicled more than 900 places across the United States and Canada recommended for gay travelers.Īside from the dozens of gay bars serving Chicago, the first “gay bar that is gone” I came across was Esquire Cocktails in Joliet, Illinois, which existed in 1966 at 211 North Chicago Street and, according to the Damron Guide, served a mixed crowd while the “back part” was primarily for gay patrons. The other guide was a Damron Guide from 1966, which is an LGBTQ travel company that still exists and has been publishing gay travel guides since 1964. One was titled: "The Lavender Baedeker ‘66: A Guidebook to Gay, Interesting, Hysterical, and Historic Places in the U.S.," and it was published by a company listing LGBTQ-friendly establishments since 1961. Both are rare finds and I had to convince folks from far away to scan archival copies and send to me. To document the “gay bars that are gone” of Route 66, I came with a few important things in my suitcase: two LGBTQ USA travel guides from the year 1966 (coincidentally) and a rainbow flag. These are spaces where gay Americans found joy, love, community, and solidarity in the face of great social and political adversity. Where I live in New York City I lead a walking tour about “gay bars that are gone” and people who attend share histories and sometimes memories from LGBTQ spaces, dating as far back as the 1870s. The subject of gay bars from the past really interests me. While I traveled Route 66 with the National Trust from Chicago to Springfield, Missouri, I documented places in communities along the iconic highway that historically welcomed gay travelers. As one of the first cross-country highways, Route 66 connected refugees from the Dust Bowl to safety in the 1930s, troops to military bases during World War II, and post-war Americans to California and the western states in the 1950s and onwards. It weaves past small towns, big cities, national parks, roadside attractions, and also.
![gay bar chicago sign gay bar chicago sign](https://i.etsystatic.com/6635514/r/il/bd1b77/1530350783/il_1588xN.1530350783_f5mo.jpg)
Route 66, a National Treasure of the National Trust, winds its way some 2,400 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles.