Julius' Bar

About this place Julius' Bar

Julius' Bar at 159 West 10th Street holds the distinction of being the oldest gay bar in New York City — and, by most accounts, the oldest surviving gay bar in the United States. The building dates from the 1860s when it operated as a tavern; by the 1950s it had become a known gathering place for gay men at a time when such establishments operated under constant threat of police harassment, licence revocation, and prosecution. The bar's defining moment of history came on 21 April 1966 when members of the Mattachine Society staged a "Sip-In" here: four men announced to the manager that they were homosexual and demanded to be served, deliberately challenging the New York State Liquor Authority's policy of refusing licences to establishments that served gay customers. The protest, covered by the New York Times, contributed to the eventual reversal of that policy — a direct precursor to the Stonewall uprising three years later. Today Julius' is a neighbourhood tavern that carries its history without making a performance of it. The long wooden bar, the old photographs on the walls, the decent burgers, the clientele that mixes long-term West Village residents with people who came specifically because of the history — it is a functioning bar that happens to be a landmark. Less frenetic than the Stonewall tourist circuit; more likely to be the place where you have an actual conversation.