Ramrod boston

My first gay bar was also the , in Boys had long hair and wore bell bottoms back then. Lots of mustaches, and some beards. There was a diverse crowd, white, black and Latino, women and men.

It was the start of the disco era and I can remember hearing Shirley and Co. Later, Ramrod moved out of the theater district to Boylston. I believe the old Ramrod building was demolished to make room for the Transportation Building. There was a lot of bar hopping between Ramrod and the Twelve as it was called. And after closing time, everyone from both bars would hang out on Boylston street for a couple of hours, with music provided by the guy with the frosted afro playing his boombox, and then the party moved to the Fens.

Good times over many years. It's too bad to see it go, but what was once a thriving gay bar scene in the 70s through the 90s is now very different. Back then there was no internet,no cell phones, so the everything revolved around the bars. And Boylston street is a whole new world. Time marches on. I never saw any ghosts, but if I did I would have attributed it to the drugs and booze.

I did see some body parts on the dance floor but not in jars. Thanks for sharing your memories! I believe that whole block is being torn down for new development. Very sad and a real loss of some local history. I named the club machine and I saw what was in the basement Post a Comment.

My last few blog posts have focused on 17th century stories about witches. This week I'm changing things up. Let's talk about haunted gay bars instead. I should say, "Let's talk about haunted gay bars again. My post was circulating around the internet again recently and some people reached out to share two other Boston haunted gay bar stories. The first story is about the stately old building at Boylston Street. It was originally built as a horse carriage factory, but in the s and s it was home to a gay club called simply the Club.

The Club featured some of Boston's best DJs and was a popular spot for dancing. The club's three floors were filled with a diverse mix of gays, lesbians, and even adventurous straight people who came for the music. Here is a quote from a Boston Globe article hinting at the club's mystique:. After the Club closed the building was the site of several other other gay bars: Maximum Security, Tatoo, and finally Quest.

Currently the building is home to the Baseball Tavern, a straight sports bar. That's the history, now here's the ghost story a friend told me. In the midth century many gay bars were controlled by organized crime, and allegedly this was once the case with The Club as well. The straight mobster who owned the club didn't care about its gay clientele as long as he made money off them.

He was living the good life until one night he brought two female prostitutes home to his suburban house. The three adjourned to a room above the garage for some erotic fun, but unfortunately in his eagerness the mobster forgot to shut off his car.

The next morning the mobster and the two women were found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning. Email This BlogThis! Labels: Boylston , Boston Massachusetts , dead mobster , gay bar , gays , ghosts , haunted , haunted bar , haunted gay bar , Machine , medical school , medical specimens , morgue , Ramrod , the Club. Ramrod, the leather and Levis gay bar, moved into the first floor in with Machine carving out a separate gay nightclub downstairs in Both spots had that kind of slightly dingy, lived-in feel of a well-loved gay hangout, the cigarette smell that seemed to hang in the air long after Boston banned smoking indoors, the dim corners here and there for making out.

It was a sex-positive spot in a still puritanical city, with loud music and stiff drinks. Downstairs, drag queens twirled on stage in front of crowds that swayed under the disco lights. The gay scene in Boston is still dominated by white guys, but at least for many, Machine was a hub for a more diverse crowd. More people of color, more women. The spot hosted Dyke Nights and at least one gay wedding reception. From until the very end, you could catch Donald Smith slinging drinks, always happy to chat anyone up.

Machine was the welcoming committee. It taught people a lot about life. We made you feel much better about yourself so you could lift yourself up out of whatever you were going through and then move on. We're gonna miss that. Miranda Wrights, who worked on and off at Machine for 18 years, noted that the staff felt things were off for a while, which seemed to stem from a lack of interest from the top.

Why is the bathroom overflowing all the time? But capitalism is capitalism. Doors officially closed on March 14, just days before Gov. Patrons and employees alike held out hope for a goodbye bash sometime after quarantine. Construction is slated to start sometime this fall and Machine and Ramrod will never open their doors again.

Rooming houses among the auto parts dealerships on Boylston were home to minorities, elderly people on fixed incomes, and college students.

Queer students especially stayed in the area since returning home to small towns meant a life back in the closet. Following the Stonewall Riots of , more gay bars opened throughout the country and by the s and s, you could hit up multiple gay bars all within a few blocks of each other in Fenway.