Julius

On April 21, 1966, members of the Mattachine Society staged a "Sip-In" at Julius: Dick Leitsch, Craig Rodwell and John Timmons planned to say they were homosexuals before ordering a drink¹. It came three years before Stonewall, and afterward the State Liquor Authority backed down on its policy of refusing service to known homosexuals^{2, 3}.

The bar was already old. Bar lore puts its opening around 1867; the current owner says 1864¹. It became a popular watering hole in the 1930s and 1940s, thanks to Nick's, a jazz club nearby¹. Barrels stamped "Jacob Ruppert" serve as tables, vintage photos of racehorses, boxers and actors hang on the walls, and newspaper clippings there say it was the favorite bar of Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote and Rudolf Nureyev¹. Scenes from The Boys in the Band (1970) were shot there¹.

When we listed it, we called it one of the oldest gay bars in the city, with cheap drinks and a four-dollar burger that was one of the best in the neighborhood. From 2008 to 2024 it also held a monthly dance party called Mattachine, co-founded and DJ'd by John Cameron Mitchell and others¹.

The honors piled up: a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016, a plaque for the sip-in in April 2022, and city landmark status for the building that December¹. On April 21, 2026, the sip-in's 60th anniversary, the bar hosted the anchor event and recreated the famous photo^{2, 4}. Randy Wicker, who was in the original, stood in the same spot, and the longtime owner, Helen Buford, posed as the bartender². Queerty calls it the oldest continually operating gay bar in the city, and it's still at 159 West 10th Street^{1, 2}.