About this Map

Welcome to our interactive map! Before looking at the map, please check out the additional information for more background on the map's content and a timeline.

We are also in need of your help!

We've done a lot of research, but there are still some bars we don't know too much about. If you know anything or have any leds we can follow, please contact us!

pittlgbtcommuseum@gmail.com

A Little Background...

Pittsburgh has a long history of vibrant bars and exciting nightlife! After searching through OUT Magazine, PlanetQ, directories, city records, and many, many maps, we have discovered about 60 unique bars. That does not mean we found 60 unique locations! Many of Pittsburgh’s bars were in ‘historic’ buildings. In this case, ‘historic’ means that one or more previous LGBT+ bars inhabited the same building.

Liquor licenses are linked to buildings, not people or particular companies. Therefore, many bars of all kinds often inhabited the same number of buildings. Whenever someone bought the building, they got the liquor license along with it. For gay bars, there was a concentrated effort to keep popular or well loved bars in the community when a previous owner either died or retired.

Help Wanted!

Below is an interactive map that holds all of the research we’ve managed to do. You’ll see also that there gaps in our knowledge. Please, if you have any information to fill those gaps, or if we got something wrong, please reach out to us!

In this list, we have the bars we have found evidence of in some form but have no information on:

Embassy Club (7th near Grant?)

Six Thirty Club

Cruella Deville

The Concord/Concord Café (204 6th Ave?)

The Gallery (215 Smithfield?)

Bruno’s

Hartzberg’s

Inner Circle

Transportation Club

Casa Carmen (1/2 block North of Wood St.?)

Cork & Bottle Cocktail Lounge (Oliver Buliding?)

Hurricane Music Bar (1603 Center Ave?)

Mardi Gras (742 Bellefonte?)

University Grill (4605 Forbes Ave?)

Arena Bathhouse (2025 Forbes?)

Please reach out to us at: pittlgbtcommuseum@gmail.com

Click the play button to activate the map then click on each marker to learn about each location!

Key:

Active Bars:

Closed Bars:

Locations we need more information about:

IMG_0197

The Holiday

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Brewery

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The Holiday

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A Timeline...

Below is taken from city and queer magazine directories. These are the bars that appear within those directories and when. You can see where they appear, how long they stuck around, and when they started disappearing.

These sources were limited, as the city directories (these are Yellow Pages and their precursors which listed every business in the city) came out only every five to ten years and began giving businesses the ability to opt in and out of appearing between the pages. Both PlanetQ and OUT magazine, sources of news and information for the LGBT+ community, also had limited advertisement space and limited runs.

As you can imagine, there was danger to being so public as appearing in the city directory. Homophobia could cause violence, owners could lose their bars, and for a time being LGBT+ was a crime. However, you can see, bars increasingly appeared in the directories, even when they had the ability to opt out of appearing in them.

There were raids, of course. No gay bar went without police intervention or attack from the 1950s to today. However, increasingly, the city’s gay bars chose to appear in city directors and not just the gay magazines.

1950

Tender Trap at 229 S Highland Avenue

Horseshoe Bar and Grille at 644 Penn Ave

1955

Horseshoe Bar and Grille at 644 Penn Ave

1960

Norreh Club at 1226 Herron Ave

Tender Trap 229 S Highland Avenue

Horseshoe Bar and Grille at 644 Penn Ave

1965

David’s Lounge at 632 Penn Ave

Holiday Bar at 4620 Forbes Ave

Norreh Club at 1226 Herron Ave

Home Circle Club at 100 Vinial Street

Tender Trap at 229 S Highland Avenue

1970

David’s Lounge at 632 Penn Ave

Holiday Bar at 4620 Forbes Ave

Home Circle Club at 100 Vinial Street

1975

Club Pittsburgh at 824 5th Avenue

Tender Trap at 229 S Highland Avenue

Home Circle Club at 100 Vinial Street

1980

David;s at 632 Penn Ave

Club Pittsburgh at 824 5th Avenue

Tender Trap at 229 S Highland Avenue

Home Circle Club at 100 Vinial Street

Shawn’s at 1209 5th Ave

Pegasus Lounge at 818 Liberty Avenue

1991

Sidekicks at 931 Liberty Avenue

Metropol just at 1600 Smallman

Pegasus Lounge at 818 Liberty Avenue

Jazi’s bar and restaurant at 1241 Western Ave

Brewers Hotel Inc at 3315 Liberty Avenue

Tilden Samuel J. Assn at 941 Liberty Ave (where Tilden II was)

Traveler’s Social Club at 6525 Hamilton Ave

Real Luck Cafe at 1519 Penn Ave

1995

Sidekicks at 931 Liberty Avenue

Bubba’s Bar at 128 E. 8th Avenue Homestead

Metropol seemed to be throughout the terminal, 1600-1650 smallman

Tuscany Cafe seemed to have 7 locations under Tuscany Coffee:

1 Mellon Bank

2 Mellon Bank

120 5th Ave

420 S. Craig Oakland

5887 Forbes Ave

733 Copland

1501 E. Carson

Pegasus Lounge at 818 Liberty Avenue

Brewers Hotel Inc at 3315 Liberty Avenue

Tilden Samuel J. Assn at 941 Liberty Ave

Traveler’s Social Club at 6525 Hamilton Ave

Images at 965 Liberty Ave

2000

Sidekicks at 931 Liberty Avenue

Club One at 6325 Penn Ave

Tuscany Cafe at 1501 E. Carson St.

Pegasus Lounge at 818 Liberty Avenue

Donny’s Place 1226 Heron Avenue

Brewers Hotel Inc at 3315 Liberty Avenue

Tilden Samuel J. Assn at 941 Liberty Ave

Traveler’s Social Club at 6525 Hamilton Ave

Images at 965 Liberty Ave

Sources:

General

Heinz History Center's Detre Library and Archive specifically; Donny Thinies's archive, PlanetQ archive, OUT Magazine archive, and their city directories.

Oral Histories from Chuck Honse, Butch Izaj, Scott Noxon, Diane Watson, Rev. Hammond, and Tim Ziaukas (hear some of these on our website: https://www.theholidaypride.com/oral-histories)

https://pittsburghqueerhistory.com/publications-2/b

https://www.facebook.com/groups/322523081147764/

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/316fcc0929204984b5287ef8a3053ce6

https://nextpittsburgh.com/features/pittsburgh-once-was-gay-americas-best-kept-secret/

https://www.pghcitypaper.com/news/why-doesnt-pittsburgh-have-a-gayborhood-24767867

https://www.post-gazette.com/life/drinks/2024/10/29/pittsburgh-gay-bars-lgbtq-nightlife/stories/202410170074

https://harrisonapple.wordpress.com/vogue-pittsburgh/

https://www.pghcitypaper.com/news-2/why-doesnt-pittsburgh-have-a-gayborhood-24767867/

Mary's Bar

https://maryspgh.com/

Embassy Club

https://historicpittsburgh.org/islandora/object/pitt%3A715.117097_7.CP