Dive bars have been going the way of the dodo in San Francisco, as rent prices grow steeper and housing scarcer. Now another bar with queer history may likely fall — Lucky 13, situated on Market Street in The Castro neighborhood, is set to be torn down to make way for new housing. The plan has been floating around since last year, but a Notice of Building Permit Application recently posted outside the building calling for demolition suggests it’s moving forward.
Hoodline reports:
According to the Planning Department, developers are seeking to demolish the bar and its patio to build a 28-unit, five-story apartment building with 2,900 square feet of ground-floor commercial space. Each unit would have its own subterranean parking space, according to the permit application.
It might seem like a smart move to squeeze housing wherever it will fit (seriously, the city is in a housing crisis), but many feel the bar holds a history that’s worth preserving, rather than replacing it with what’s almost guaranteed to be another version of the glass-facade condo buildings that have been cropping up all over San Francisco.
Lucky 13 was one of 18 clubhouses for the Woodmen of the World, a fraternal society for woodworkers. An inscription on the bar’s exterior reads “W.O.W 1906,” which is the same year the building was constructed.
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Hoodline adds:
The space also ties deeply into the city’s LGBT history; in the 1970s, it was a popular dance club that went through several name changes, including Alfie’s, The Mind Shaft, The Prism, 2140 Market, High Chaparral, The Corral, and The Industrial Dance Company. Supervisor Harvey Milk held meetings at the club, and part of his funeral was held there, said Kreankel.
Neighbors will likely continue to fight the plan by filing applications for discretionary review on the grounds that Lucky 13 is a historic space. That may slow the process down, but the odds don’t look great that the venue will live on much longer.
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
It’s gay history not queer.
Heywood Jablowme
So stop reading QUEERty, ya queer!
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
Stop being a self important millennial trying to rewrite gay history to make yourself feel relevant.
Heywood Jablowme
Ha! I’m over 50. So that must make you over 80?
drmiller
Is this really a hair worth splitting? That goes for everyone responding as well. We’re all on the same side here folks haha 🙂
Heywood Jablowme
@drmiller: Hey, don’t go after me! He does that all the time here – thinks “queer” is derogatory and a slur. (Ignores the name of this site which is Queerty.) He’s just ignorant.
bobmister250
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou I agree with you so much and I’m 26. It is worth hair splitting. I’m not queer. I’m gay. Stop calling me queer. It’s offensive.
IDoNotHaveToAgreeWithYou
Keep on being gay and proud Bob. Don’t let left wing extremists erase you.
drmiller
I was born and raised in San Francisco. I have two other gay siblings. I’m in my early twenties–and I have never heard of this bar.
With all due respect–nothing lasts forever, and maybe this is just one of those occasions where something needs to move into history. What this bar represents is living in the spirit of the city.
Gentrification doesn’t have to be a bad thing, and when you think about the human race expanding more and more into technology and progressing as a species, this sort of thing becomes more and more irrelevant because sexuality will inevitably become more and more irrelevant. Yes we are in a blip now, but picture us 100-300 years down the line.
Respectfully, as a local, I say keep moving forward 🙂
Juanjo
If you were born and raised in San Francisco and had two gay siblings, yet never knew of this venue under any of the names it has held then you must have closed your eyes and blocked your ears whenever you went on Market Street between Castro and downtown because it was pretty hard to miss. It was never one of my personal hangouts but I knew it, saw it and knew people who went there.
MykeLWulf
The only problem with that line of thinking, is that then we’d not have any buildings older than 10 years or so. Progress should continue, but we should make every effort to preserve our history, not demolish every piece of it. And I mean that as a human, not as a gay male; although as a gay male, I think it even more important to preserve as many pieces of our history as we can.
brian_keith
I lived in the City for 15 years, still in the Bay Area, and if you spent any time in the Castro, you would know this bar.
But, I agree, keep moving forward. It wasn’t anything that was unique or special worth preserving.
drmiller
Juanjo, not everyone in SF has the same experience. Although, again with respect, perhaps this bar just speaks to a different generation of LGBTQ? The fact it’s closing is at least partially indicative of that fact. Times change. Norms change. Bars change. I’m not overly eager to hang onto a bar that can’t sustain itself in a new era. Embrace change 🙂
drmiller
MykeLWulf, I see your point, but I just don’t agree. I don’t have any problem with having buildings 10 years old or younger. We don’t need to preserve history, we just need to record it and keep the lessons we learned alive. It doesn’t make any sense to me to hold onto dilapidated, out of touch, tired buildings like the one in this article.
Just different perspectives though 🙂
1EqualityUSA
Doctor…early twenties…
drmiller
DR are my first two initials, it’s not mean to imply I’m a doctor–but easy mistake to make obviously 🙂
o.codone
The place looks like apiece of shit. All stucco on the front and one or two stories just like the entire rest of california which has the ugliest architecture anywhere on the planet. Demolish that shithole-looking stankfest. Why do I have to talk you into it? Do you save the little pieces of cardboard from the toilet paper rolls too?
ErikO
Very true,
Heywood Jablowme
When two of the worst right-wing posters here are against something (in this case, historic preservation), that’s a good sign it’s probably a good thing.
Sekhet Bast Ra
It was a queer and punk bar. No, it didn’t look like much from the outside. It was a good place to get an affordable drink and actually get treated like a human being for a few hours. It was also the best spot on that part of Market to make a few sales as a Peachy Puff.
I can’t afford to live in San Francisco anymore but I will miss this bar.
Chris
I remember it as a gay bar where I played some pool, drank a few beers, and had way too-many strong mixed drinks. I liked its dive-bar ambience because it reminded me of the country song about having friends in low places. I’ll miss it.
jhon_siders
I went there when it was the mine shaft a fun real leather bar !! They will build one of those all wood fire traps in its place saw one burn on the news in SF how do they allow them with no fire walls no less !
winemaker
This bar was never the ‘Mine Shaft’ The ‘Mine Shaft was at 2166 Market Street. It was one of the gay bars that occupied that space, along with the Balcony, a leather bar and before that an Italian restaurant called Cardi’s. its most recent stint was an office for State Farm Insurance. Soon it’ll be an overpriced upscale men’s boutique catering to gay men, set to open in June!