The nation’s second-oldest gay bar may soon reopen its doors

Leon’s of Baltimore, the nation’s second-oldest gay bar, temporarily closed its doors in July after the death of its longtime and 66-year-old owner Ron Singer.

Now, Singer’s heirs and local activists are rallying to reopen the bar in the coming weeks while maintaining its status as a haven for queer patrons.

Singer left the bar to his daughter Samm Singer and her three siblings. Samm Singer recently told The Baltimore Banner that she plans to reopen the bar in the coming weeks with the assistance of her husband, longtime bartender Sam Smith.

Patrons reportedly crowded the bar for a farewell toast on the day before its closure. Since its closing, Samm Singer said that other local gay bars (Drinkery and The Club Car) have hosted Leon’s karaoke and trivia nights and even allowed Leon’s bartenders to work shifts, so they can continue making money and attracting new customers in the meantime.

“The community is amazing,” Singer said. “I’m inheriting my family business, but I’m also working with family.”

She said the bar will maintain its “quirky, divey vibe.” Its decor before closing included Pride flags, Christmas tinsel, bloody paper Halloween knives, a skeleton with a thing standing straight up, as well as a painting of Catherine Lahoma, a former cook at the bar who, patrons and employees say, still haunts the kitchen with an occasional smell of cigarette smoke.

The bar may also maintain its low prices, heavy pours, regular karaoke nights, drag shows, viewing parties, art performances, and its annual Thanksgiving feast for holiday orphans who want a warm, welcoming place during the autumn holiday.

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“It’s such an institution.”

Leon’s was reportedly named after Leon Lampe, the man who owned the bar during the 1930s, according to Baltimore Heritage. After World War II, the bar began hosting beatniks, artists, gay, and straight patrons, and it continually operated as a gay bar since 1957. It’s rumored that, during its early days as a gay bar, patrons had to ask the doorman, “Are you a friend of Dorothy?” as a password phrased before being allowed inside.

Two other gay bars opened around the same time as Leon’s: The Pepper Hill Club and Eddie’s. Leon’s also was one of the city’s many gay bars operating around the late 1990s and early 2000s, including Club Bunns, The Hippo, The Gallery, Grand Central, Coconuts, Port in a Storm, Nellie’s, and Mary’s, The Baltimore Banner reported; but all of these bars have since shut down.

Ben Egerman, a local author of zines about Baltimore’s queer past, said of Leon’s, “It’s such an institution. It represents the last of those old pre-Stonewall gay bars.” One of the bar’s 81-year-old patrons, Jim Becker, said that once he came out in 1967, he made it a point to go every night, adding, “That’s how most of us met our friends.”

Cade Granger, a 27-year-old who started working as a Leon’s bartender four years ago, told the Banner, “I found community here that I would not have otherwise found. It’s a place that everyone knows is always open.”

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