A developer and the estate of the late Donald Thinnes are suing two Polish Hill residents pushing for the historic designation of former Pittsburgh gay bar Donny’s Place.
Elizabeth, or Lizzie, Anderson and Matthew Cotter, the defendants named in the lawsuit, have been advocating since early 2024 to thwart the demolition of Donny’s Place in Polish Hill by having it be designated as a historic city landmark.
Anderson and Cotter’s efforts, however, directly contradict the wishes of Thinnes’ estate, as alleged in the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas. The defendants are being charged with illegally and intentionally interfering with a standing contract, as well as conspiracy.
Thinnes, who died on Jan. 20, 2024, had entered into a sales agreement on March 13, 2019 with developer Laurel Communities to tear down his former bar and build townhouses on the parcel of land where the building stands, as well as nearby parcels. The 34 separate parcels total approximately 2.39 acres of land.
Donny’s Place was one of Pittsburgh’s oldest and most popular gay bars. The defunct establishment at 1226 Herron Ave. in Polish Hill opened in 1973 and closed two years ago.
Over its 50-year history as a bar and nightclub, it hosted meetings, pageants, films, performances, fetish nights, fundraisers, memorials, happy hours and hot dog roasts.
In 2019, the sale price of Thinnes’ real estate was $1.05 million, proceeds that the estate stands to lose if the sale doesn’t go through. It’s now up to Thomas Yargo, the executor of Thinnes’ estate, to carry out his wishes.
“At the time the agreement was executed, Thinnes and Laurel mutually understood and agreed that Donny’s Place … would be razed so that townhouses could be constructed,” the lawsuit says.
In Thinnes’ will, which is attached to the lawsuit, he directed that all of his real estate be sold at the “best obtainable market price.”
Laurel intends to build 19 townhouses on the property, and the plans are currently awaiting City of Pittsburgh Zoning Board of Adjustment approval. However, the application was opposed by the Polish Hill Civic Association, of which Cotter is a director.
While the zoning process was being litigated, Thinnes passed away, the lawsuit said.
Intentional interference
Donny’s Place is currently in a “significant state of disrepair and vandalization,” the lawsuit says. The property was damaged in a fire in December.
“It is believed that defendants’ interference is not motivated by a sincere desire to preserve Donny’s Place — but rather a general hostility to any development in the Polish Hill neighborhood.”
The deteriorating state of the structure makes it unsuitable for preservation, not to mention costly, the lawsuit says.
“(It’s) a prime candidate for much-needed residential development: it is a comparably large space in a dense neighborhood; it is located near public transportation hubs close to Downtown Pittsburgh and the existing structures are in poor condition, the cost of rehabilitating which is excessive,” the lawsuit says.
The Thinnes estate has no desire to expend the “limited funds” it has to fund repairs to the building, according to the lawsuit.
Anderson and Cotter made a Change.org petition on or around Feb. 8, 2024, with the goal of halting the development of the property. It was titled “Preserve Donny’s Place, and Bring in Affordable LGBTQIA Housing.”
“There is a way to possibly reshape this impending gentrification” through historic nomination, the petition said, a process that “puts an immediate hold on demolition of the Donny’s Place building and likely a pause on the prospective development.”
Though the petition purports to honor the legacy of Donny’s Place and Thinnes, it’s actually an “act of obstructionism intended to interfere with the development through improper means,” the lawsuit alleges.
Anderson and Cotter also filed a Historic Nomination Form on Oct. 24, seeking to declare Donny’s Place a historic landmark, which would prevent its demolition.
A successful nomination has to include proof of good-faith effort to communicate and gain the property owner’s consent, according to the lawsuit.
“It was prepared by the defendants and submitted to the (Pittsburgh Historic Review Commission) against the wishes of the Thinnes estate and without any good-faith attempt to gain its consent,” the lawsuit says.
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The pair had sent a letter to Thinnes’ estate, but it was dated Oct. 22 — two days before the nomination was filed, according to the lawsuit.
“Rather than demonstrate the requisite good-faith efforts to gain their consent, the defendants have forced the nomination upon the Thinnes estate suddenly and without consultation,” the lawsuit says. “The Thinnes estate did not even receive notice of the nomination until after it was submitted.”
Queer history
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.
Anderson, 39, told TribLive in December that she was hoping to preserve the queer history at Donny’s Place.
Donny’s Place would be the first queer history landmark in Western Pennsylvania if the historic designation goes through, according to Anderson.
“It would mean a lot to me,” Anderson told TribLive in December. “To imagine that that would be right in our neighborhood with a place that I know … that would just be so exciting.”
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.
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 historic landmark 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.”
Laurel Communities and Thinnes’ estate are demanding a jury trial, according to the lawsuit. Their representation at Goldberg, Kamin and Garvin did not return TribLive’s request for comment Thursday.
“Regardless of their motive, (the) defendants’ concerted actions were taken for the sole purpose of disrupting the planned development and thereby improperly interfering with the plaintiffs’ business relations,” the lawsuit says.
Anderson and Cotter are unable to comment on the pending litigation, Anderson told TribLive Thursday.