Pittsburgh activists seek historic designation for former gay bar
Donny's Place was a long-standing stalwart for the queer community in the Polish Hill neighborhood.
Pittsburgh activists are seeking historical designation for a building that housed a gay bar from 1973 to 2022. Donny’s Place was a long-standing stalwart for the queer community in the Polish Hill neighborhood.
“Donny’s holds such an incredible history, mostly for the queer and trans community, but also for Polish Hill on the whole,” Lizzie Anderson, who co-nominated the building for recognition, said.
The designation would be western Pennsylvania’s first landmark honoring queer history.
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“It never was just a gay bar,” local journalist and historian Dade Lemanski told WESA, Pittsburgh’s NPR station. “It really functioned as a community center.” Lemanski is supporting the effort to honor the bar’s former home.
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Bar owner Donald Thinnes, a Vietnam veteran, died a year ago, shortly after the bar closed. He was a founding member of both the Pittsburgh Tavern Guild, the city’s gay business association, and the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh. The foundation hosted the city’s Pride parades for years.
The threat of demolishing the building was palpable even while the bar was still open. In 2019, a group of developers announced plans to build 30 townhomes on the land Thinnes owned. Community opposition and a lawsuit have delayed the plans. Thinnes estate still owns the land and the fate of the proposed development is unclear.
“Historic nomination puts an immediate hold on demolition of the Donny’s Place building, and likely a pause on the prospective development,” an online petition launched after Thinnes died. “If the nomination is granted, then the building will have to be respected forever.”
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