Jim Simmons, who moved to the neighborhood in 1978 was also at The Hippo having a drink on Wednesday. Gay bars seem to be disappearing,” Bowers said. It just seems to be the course of things. He said he hates to see the club and others like it disappearing but was fairly resigned to that future. Joe Bowers, who sat at The Hippo’s bar last Wednesday, said he moved to the area in 1968 and remembered when the club was still the Chanticleer Club, a nightspot that dated back to the 1930s which The Hippo replaced in 1972. It’s only kind of gay now,” Letts said jokingly. She expressed sadness that gay and lesbian bars in Baltimore were disappearing, but she also finds solace in the fact their decline is in part because gays and lesbians are being accepted elsewhere, meaning issues like the threat of physical violence because of sexual orientation have dramatically declined. “The first time I felt like I was going to be OK was when I walked into a gay bar,” Letts said.Įxterior of Grand Central, a pub at 1001 North Charles Street in midtown Baltimore. She said the gay and lesbian bars and business in Baltimore helped provide a place where she felt like she could be herself and fit in. Vernon when she was attending the Maryland Institute College of Art. Misty Letts, a longtime friend of Boswell who met him at The Hippo, remembered discovering the gay community in Mt. According to a survey conducted by the Gallup Organization, the Baltimore-Towson-Columbia area ranked 25th in the top 50 metro areas in the nation for percentage of adult population who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. There are still establishments popular with gays and lesbians, places like Jay’s on Read, the Drinkery and Grand Central, but they are not the center of gay life they once were in the city. “Now it’s so loose a lot of straights come in here now,” said Davis, sitting at table outside of Grand Central smoking a Marlboro Light. Davis also pointed out that growing acceptance of gays means that they can go to mixed bars with their straight friends and not feel out of place. He attributes the demise of these bars to the rise of apps like Grindr, which make it possible for younger gays and lesbians to meet without going to a bar.
Vernon neighborhood.ĭon Davis, the owner of Grand Central on Charles Street across from The Hippo, said he’s seen the writing on the wall for at least 12 years in regards to the decline of these gay businesses.ĭavis, who previously owned gay bars Central Station and Allegro, said he remembers 30 years ago there were more than 20 gay or lesbian bars operating in the fairly small community now there are only three or four left. “First time I walked into The Hippo I would’ve thought I was the only one like me in the world,” Boswell said wistfully.īusinesses owned by gays and lesbians that cater to those communities, particularly nightspots, have been slowly but steadily disappearing in Baltimore for the past two decades, especially in the Mt. A window display at Club Hippo with a show poster for Mi Casa Tu Casa honoring Miss Gay Maryland 2015.