Elks Athletic Club/Henry Clay Hotel (By McKenzie Lohmer)

 Elks Athletic Club/Henry Clay Hotel – Louisville, KY

The Henry Clay Hotel, which is registered as the Elks Athletic Club on the National Register of Historic Places, is located on 604 S. Third Street (1). This site is home to the Beaux Arts Cocktail Lounge which opened on April 16, 1947 (2). The bar started as a solely heterosexual space like many other establishments during this period.  Cocktail bars were "central to new forms of middle-class consumption," that attracted "educated, status-conscious" consumers who gathered to "enjoy drinks after work or as part of evening entertainments" (3). 

Looking at multiple advertisements from this establishment shows that it did not start out as “gay-oriented,” but began to lean that way around 1952 or 1953 (4). The first advertisement that signified the shift to gay patrons ran in The Courier-Journal on November of 1952. The ad read: “Relax and be gay with Renee’ at the organ” (5). It is unknown if the bar specifically wanted to become gay-friendly, or if the ad was simply misunderstood by members of the LGBTQ community.  The shift, however, was immediate. The ads related to Beaux Arts stopped showing up in the Courier-Journal around this time, which implies the lounge did not need the extra exposure due to good business (6). There is speculation that, due to the time period, the bar did not switch to solely homosexual customers. Most likely, like many other bars, “[the Beaux Arts] probably had two sets of clientele:  a heterosexual crowd early in the evening and a homosexual one later at night” (7). 

The bar closed its doors in 1955 (8). The building was bought by members of the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) the same year (9). They turned it into a dining room for its members (10). The fun times at the Beaux Arts Cocktail bar were no longer, but the effect it had on the LGBTQ community lives on. 

The Beaux Arts Cocktail bar is believed to be the first gay bar in Louisville and gave homosexuals in the area a safe space (11). The period during which the bar was open was difficult for the LGBTQ community. Gay people were faced with immense discrimination and “subject to harassment and persecution in public spaces” (12). They also did not have job security. President Dwight D. Eisenhower “signed an executive order that banned… people guilty of ‘sexual perversion’- from federal jobs” (13). Employers would conduct raids, and if someone was found to be a homosexual, they would be fired and blacklisted from federal employment as well as other occupations Additionally, “the American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality as a form of mental disorder in 1952" (14).

During these times, members of the LGBTQ community had nowhere, outside of their homes, that they could go. They were isolated in their own space because if they were to show who they really were, they might put themselves in immediate danger. The Beaux Arts Cocktail Bar, along with other “gay bars,” created public spaces that were safe for people within the LGBTQ community.  In these spaces “gay men, lesbians, and bi and transgender people could meet and be themselves.” (15) The new bars created a community which made it possible to “not only go and feel safe but find a place they belonged—with their people who understood precisely what it was like to be marginalized, to be on the fringe, to be hated" (16). Without these new public spaces, there would be no escape from the harmful reality members of the LGBTQ community face on a daily basis (17). Gay bars are historically significant to the formation of community and acceptance. Gay bars were safe havens, giving LGBTQ people a place for themselves that they never had before (18).

Notes

1. Andrew Henderson, “LGBT History 'Reclaimed' in Historic Louisville Properties,” Journal (Courier Journal, June 30, 2017), https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2017/06/30/lgbt-history-reclaimed-historic-louisville-properties/424235001/,

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4.  Queer Kentucky, “#TBT: A Quick Study of the Beaux Arts Cocktail Lounge – Louisville's First Gay Bar,” Queer Kentucky, July 25, 2019, https://queerkentucky.com/tbt-a-quick-study-of-the-beaux-arts-cocktail-lounge-louisvilles-first-gay-bar/.

5. Andrew Henderson, “LGBT History 'Reclaimed' in Historic Louisville Properties,” Journal (Courier Journal, June 30, 2017), https://www.courier-

6.  Queer Kentucky, “#TBT: A Quick Study of the Beaux Arts Cocktail Lounge – Louisville's First Gay Bar,” Queer Kentucky, July 25, 2019, https://queerkentucky.com/tbt-a-quick-study-of-the-beaux-arts-cocktail-lounge-louisvilles-first-gay-bar/.

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8. Andrew Henderson, “LGBT History 'Reclaimed' in Historic Louisville Properties,” Journal (Courier Journal, June 30, 2017), https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2017/06/30/lgbt-history-reclaimed-historic-louisville-properties/424235001/,

9. Queer Kentucky, “#TBT: A Quick Study of the Beaux Arts Cocktail Lounge – Louisville's First Gay Bar,” Queer Kentucky, July 25, 2019, https://queerkentucky.com/tbt-a-quick-study-of-the-beaux-arts-cocktail-lounge-louisvilles-first-gay-bar/.

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11. Andrew Henderson, “LGBT History 'Reclaimed' in Historic Louisville Properties,” Journal (Courier Journal, June 30, 2017), https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2017/06/30/lgbt-history-reclaimed-historic-louisville-properties/424235001/,

12. History.com Editors, “Gay Rights,” History.com (A&E Television Networks, June 28, 2017), https://www.history.com/topics/gay-rights/history-of-gay-rights.

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15. Regina Sewell, “A Place for Us?,” Outlook Ohio Magazine , June 2016, p. 32-32 1/2p .http://web.a.ebscohost.com.dbsearch.fredonia.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=31&sid=2359cbf8-86f0-4131-a770-17b6de81b44c%40sessionmgr4007

16. “Gay Bars and Their Importance to LGBTQ History,” Lesbian Love Addiction, October 6, 2018, http://lesbianloveaddiction.com/gaybars/.

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18. Regina Sewell, “A Place for Us?,” Outlook Ohio Magazine , June 2016, p. 32-32 1/2p .http://web.a.ebscohost.com.dbsearch.fredonia.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=31&sid=2359cbf8-86f0-4131-a770-17b6de81b44c%40sessionmgr4007

Bibliography

Andrew Henderson, “LGBT History 'Reclaimed' in Historic Louisville Properties,” Journal (Courier Journal, June 30, 2017), https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2017/06/30/lgbt-history-reclaimed-historic-louisville-properties/424235001/,

Queer Kentucky, “#TBT: A Quick Study of the Beaux Arts Cocktail Lounge – Louisville's First Gay Bar,” Queer Kentucky, July 25, 2019, https://queerkentucky.com/tbt-a-quick-study-of-the-beaux-arts-cocktail-lounge-louisvilles-first-gay-bar/.

History.com Editors, “Gay Rights,” History.com (A&E Television Networks, June 28, 2017), https://www.history.com/topics/gay-rights/history-of-gay-rights.

Regina Sewell, “A Place for Us?,” Outlook Ohio Magazine , June 2016, p. 32-32 1/2p .http://web.a.ebscohost.com.dbsearch.fredonia.edu:2048/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=31&sid=2359cbf8-86f0-4131-a770-17b6de81b44c%40sessionmgr4007

“Gay Bars and Their Importance to LGBTQ History,” Lesbian Love Addiction, October 6, 2018, http://lesbianloveaddiction.com/gaybars/.