A grassroots group trying to thwart the demolition of one of Pittsburgh’s oldest gay bars is pushing for Donny’s Place to be designated as a historic city landmark so it can’t be torn down.
The defunct establishment at 1226 Herron Ave. in Polish Hill opened in 1973 and closed two years ago.
Over its nearly 50-year history as a bar and nightclub, it hosted meetings, pageants, films, performances, fetish nights, fundraisers, memorials, happy hours and hot dog roasts.
Lizzie Anderson, one of the people who nominated Donny’s Place for landmark status before the city’s Historic Review Commission, said the nomination package was submitted at the end of October after gathering support from the local queer community.
“Having Donny’s Place right at the base of the neighborhood — both as a welcomer to the neighborhood but also as an exit — I am especially interested in preserving the history that has happened there,” said Anderson, 39, a queer community member in Polish Hill.
Anderson’s efforts appear to contradict the wishes of Donny’s former owner and namesake, Donald Thinnes, who died this past January.
Thinnes had entered into a sales agreement with developer Laurel Communities to tear down the former bar and build townhouses on the parcel of land where the building stands as well as nearby parcels, according to Anderson.
If action isn’t taken, she said the property, which is currently owned by Thinnes’ estate, will be torn down.
Laurel Communities did not return messages seeking comment, and the executor of the estate could not be reached.
Donny’s Place would be the first queer history landmark in Western Pennsylvania if the designation goes through, according to Anderson.
“It would mean a lot to me,” Anderson said. “To imagine that that would be right in our neighborhood with a place that I know … that would just be so exciting.”
Donny’s Place went by many names, including Norreh Social Club, DB’s, Leather Central, QBurgh said. The basement bar called Leather Central was known for patrons wearing leather apparel.
Anderson said Donny’s was also the site of early recruitment for the Pitt Men’s Study for HIV/AIDS, which launched in 1984 and is still ongoing.
Thinnes was a member of the Pittsburgh Tavern Guild, a collective of queer bar owners in the city, according to QBurgh, an online publication for Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ community.
“We got a lot of people saying they were very interested, and once we heard that there was broader support is when we decided to move on with the application,” Anderson said.
The nonprofit Preservation Pittsburgh and local queer historian Dade Lemanski provided help, she said.
“Many of Pittsburgh’s LGBTQ bars have closed for various reasons. Some structures have been demolished or repurposed for new use. The former Donny’s Place still stands and we feel it is important to recognize the building for its social and cultural significance – it is a landmark and part of our shared Pittsburgh history,” according to the application.
Though Anderson didn’t frequent Donny’s, she said she’s been an admirer from afar as a 15-year Polish Hill resident.
“We have to do something now because we really want to make sure that the place and all of the stories that happened there are preserved,” Anderson said.
Fooling the authorities
The unassuming building that housed Donny’s Place dates from around 1917, according to the application. Sitting at Herron Avenue and Ruthven Street, adjacent to the Martin Luther King Jr East Busway, the two-story structure’s red bricks have been covered with graffiti.
Once a Polish social spot called the Norreh (Herron backward) Social Club, the building became a gay bar under Thinnes. For a time, he kept the original name before changing it to Donny’s Place.
“A red light hangs over the door — a vestige of the discretion once necessary for Donny’s Place and its patrons to protect themselves from policing and homophobia — and an adjacent covered courtyard once hosted cookouts for all manner of Pittsburgh’s gay, leather, and fetish communities,” according to the application. The bar provided “an opportunity for queer people from Pittsburgh and across Northern Appalachia to meet each other and be themselves, away from the controlling eyes of a society that didn’t welcome them.”
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The application contains nuggets of detail about Thinnes, described as a gay Bloomfield native and Vietnam veteran who bought the former Polish club’s liquor license after returning to the U.S. from Vietnam in the late 1960s.
Over its history, according to the application, the club might have counted 25,000 members.
“Very few of them realized that their membership cards were coded, so the club owner or doorman could verify identities by physical characteristics, such as race, gender, or eye and hair coloration,” the application said. “It was a precaution that was necessary, since forged membership cards or those that had been stolen or ‘borrowed’ were the easiest way for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board to gain entry and issue citations. Donald Thinnes claimed that it took seven years for the Liquor Control Board to get through the door.”
Awaiting public testimony
If the Historic Review Commission agrees that the building has “something special,” it will review the proposal a second time to determine whether to recommend historic designation status to City Council, according to James Hill, a commission member.
The nominating package will also be reviewed by the city’s Planning Commission.
“They can choose whether to agree with us or deny,” Hill said.
Council makes the final decision.
Pittsburgh Councilwoman Deb Gross, D-Highland Park, whose district includes Polish Hill, said she was impressed by property’s history and impact on the Pittsburgh queer community.
“I think it’s stories like that that we really work to preserve,” Gross said Friday. “If we don’t work to preserve, we could lose them.”
Gross wouldn’t say if she supports the historic designation, as council’s vote won’t come for at least a few months.
“I have submitted letters of support with other nominations, but I think it’s prudent of us to hear public testimony,” she said.
A member of the public, the commission, council or the mayor can nominate buildings to become historic structures, according to Hill.
The commission next meets Feb. 5.
Once a building is designated as a historic landmark, usually, the structure is required to be maintained, Hill said. Major changes require the commission’s approval.
Future use
Anderson said the nominators are open to ideas about what Donny’s Place could become if it receives historic status.
Some have suggested a museum for queer history or a queer community center.
Though Anderson said there hasn’t been significant pushback, she’s unsure about how Thinnes’ estate and Laurel Communities feel about the nomination.
The nominators reached out to both the estate and Lauren Communities and haven’t heard back, Anderson said.
“Anyone who might be against this nomination, I would really ask them to consider what it means for queer people to be able to have landmarks like this,” Anderson said.
“All kinds of other people get to have these landmarks, and we want to be included in that process as well.