This will vastly expand the possibilities for employing the Eagle as a location for fundraising, which has been part of its charter since it opened in 1981. The leather pride flags outside the SF Eagle bar.
The eagle gay bar history plus#
There will be a historic marker in the parklet, which Montiel calls “the big deck,” and the 235-customer capacity will be twice that with the outdoor area.Ĭheck the water shortage status of your area, plus see reservoir levels and a list of restrictions for the Bay Area’s largest water districts. The plaza, which has not yet officially opened, will extend the Eagle patio from the side yard to the front by way of a barn door in the fence. “The bar and the Eagle Plaza cannot exist one without the other.” The flag marks the Eagle Plaza, which is part of an adjacent development, making it “the first leather plaza in the world,” Montiel said.
The eagle gay bar history windows#
The Eagle lacks windows but makes up for it by flying a huge leather pride flag bearing the colors of a red heart against black, blue and white stripes. The Eagle would be the second gay bar to be landmarked, after the Twin Peaks Tavern, which was unique in offering picture windows on Castro Street, inviting the world to look in.
These are part of a concerted effort by the Planning Department and the Historic Preservation Commission “to landmark more sites that have associations with underrepresented communities,” said Alex Westhoff, senior preservation planner with Planning Department. This month, the Martin-Lyon House in Noe Valley - the home of Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, the first same-sex couple to be legally wed in California - was unanimously approved by the board and awaits the mayor’ signature.
The Eagle is one of a flurry of LGBTQ landmark applications that, if passed, will nearly double the number of designated sites from four to seven. “It needs to be protected for the future.” This has always been a community space that has a lot of history, ” he said during an interview in the doorway. “The leather bars have disappeared over the years because of the gentrification. He used to be among those making that nightly commute from the Stud to the Eagle. But he has been around the leather bars since emigrating from Mexico City in the early 1990s, and he’s seen how this story ends. Bar owner Lex Montiel, 49, has two years left on his lease with a 10-year option. The Eagle itself is endangered, as made evident by its only exterior signage - stark white against the Eagle’s black facade - offering the building for sale. But the commute was permanently disrupted when the Stud closed for good one year ago. Through the 1990s you could watch the customers shiver in their chaps as they made a bare-bottom commute along the Harrison Street sidewalk from one to the other late into a foggy summer night. Located at the bend in the road where South of Market merges with the Mission, the Eagle was once a bookend to the Stud, another famous leather bar four blocks east. “LGBTQ bars are an important part of our city’s culture, and they’ve been disappearing,” Haney said. The drive to landmark the Eagle is the first political action for the district. “Generally people consider a leather bar to have an aesthetic that tends to be robust or dominant and it attracts a clientele that is interested in various and sundry fetishes,” said Bob Goldfarb, president of the district. Michael Siever dances during the “Disco Daddy” party at the SF Eagle in March 2015. Within that swath, the term “leather” is not a fabric. “This is one of the oldest LGBTQ bars in San Francisco and the longest operating SoMa Leather LGBTQ space,” said Supervisor Matt Haney, who represents the neighborhood and sponsored the resolution, with soldiering by the Leather and LGBTQ Cultural District, which was formed in 2019 and runs from Howard to Harrison streets and Division to Seventh streets.
It will also serve as tribute to the traditional home of the Thursday night Bare Chest Calendar competition. If it is landmarked as expected, the Eagle will live on as a memorial to at least 22 staffers who died in the AIDS epidemic, including bartender Dennis Yount, one of the earliest attributed casualties. The first hearing by the Historic Preservation Commission will address its application at a virtual meeting Wednesday.