NYC’s Oldest Gay Bar Julius’ Designated as Official Landmark
Julius’ is a gay New York City institution. The site has been operating as a bar since 1864 and known as Julius’ since 1930 when it was a popular watering hole for sports figures and other celebrities. Its legacy as New York City’s first gay bar would be established in the 1960’s when gay men began to frequent the establishment and held the famous “sip-in” demonstration of 1966.
On December 6, The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously designated Julius’ Bar as an official landmark, earning an 11-0 vote during a virtual hearing. The bar was already previously protected by a broader landmark designation in the Greenwich Village Historic District, which comprises of more than 2,000 buildings across 100 blocks in Manhattan.
Nevertheless, with gay bars—and especially lesbian bars—vanishing all across the country, it was hailed as a victory. For more than a decade, groups such as Village Preservation and the NYC LGBT Historic Sites Project have pushed to accord the bar, which is located at 159 West 10th Street, landmark status.
During the hearing, historian Michael Caratzas told the story of the 1966 “sip-in,” a pivotal moment in queer history on April 21, 1966 when four gay men from the Mattachine Society — Dick Leitsch, Randy Wicker, Craig Rodwell, and John Timmons — went from bar to bar stating that they were homosexuals and wanted to be served alcohol. When the men arrived at Julius’ Bar and asked to be served, a Village Voice photographer took a photo of a bartender covering a glass and denying them service. The bar was not specifically known as a gay bar at the time, but gay patrons frequented the bar. The demonstration and the photograph gave the issue the exposure it needed to change the state’s liquor law that had banned bartenders from serving gay people.
“As the site of the sip-in, the building shines a light on the activism leading up to the Stonewall Rebellion and remains a place of active LGBTQ history and commemoration,” Caratzas said. “The research staff recommends that the commission vote to designate the Julius’ Bar building as a New York City landmark.”
Visit Julius’ gay bar next time you are in Manhattan and celebrate this long overdue milestone. The bar regularly holds parties and events, and was a location in the original film version of Boys In the Band (1970), the remake in 2020, and most recently a location in the Melissa McCarthy/ Ian McKellen movie Can You Ever Forgive Me?
