In an oral history, Georgia King-a lesbian who frequented the area in the 1950s-recalled that the bars there “were really something else.
Louis area and beyond gravitated toward the 3500 block of Olive. For years afterward, much of the former Mill Creek Valley consisted of empty, grass-covered lots, earning it the nickname “Hiroshima Flats.” LGBTQ people from throughout the St. These establishments remained in business after 1959, when the nearby Mill Creek Valley neighborhood was largely demolished as part of a “slum clearance” or “urban renewal” project. Other LGBTQ and LGBTQ-friendly bars, restaurants, and coffeehouses were on nearby blocks. In these years, popular nightspots on the block included the Golden Gate Bar (later the Golden Gate Coffee House), Shelley’s (also called the Midway and Gus’), Act IV Coffee House, and the Onyx Room. Image courtesy of ONE Archives at the USC Libraries. Louis’s first locally produced gay periodical. Published by the Mandrake Society, the Mandrake was St. Kranzberg Art & Architecture Library Special CollectionsĪn ad for the Onyx Room and the Gateway Coffee House from the March 1971 issue of the Mandrake.