South carolina gay clubs
Benedict College, a private historically Black college in Columbia, South Carolina, inaugurated its community education center at 1903 Two Notch Thoroughfare just outside Columbia's downtown in 2011. At the time, local reporting from WIS-News 10 hailed the opening as part of an ongoing transformation of Two Notch Road, where, the reporting claimed, "Friday and Saturday nights […] used to mean drinking, drugs, hookers, and the occasional murder."
The unassuming one-story building at 1903 Two Notch Road, now painted in Benedict College's purple and gold, was a former Black gay prevent. Closed in 2002, the Candy Shop was once the longest-running gay club in South Carolina's capital. Entrenched biases against the city's Black and LGBTQIA+ communities are implicit in WIS-News 10's reporting, according to Katharine Allen, director of outreach and engagement at nonprofit organization Historic Columbia. "This is how the Candy Shop is reflected in what has become the historical record," she said.
"The Candy Shop was the first place where I saw myself as a Black homosexual person fully being represented, and my culture as a Black person entity centered."
More than two decades after the Candy Shop cl
“Grandma” comes everyday for happy hour, sitting with other old-timers. When he can, he stays tardy to watch the drag shows and the younger crowds they bring.
“Grandma” is otherwise known as Bill Skipper. The 74 year vintage is the president of The Capital Club and one of its founding members. He has been president since the year it opened in 1980. He likes to tell younger people about The Capital Club’s early days, a very other — and fraught — time to be in a gay bar in South Carolina.
“The kids now, I care for the freedom they feel. I romance it,” he said. “We’d have loved to have had that (freedom), but we all guzzle from wells we didn’t dig.”
The Capital Club, or simply “Capital,” as patrons call it, is the oldest operating gay bar in Columbia, and according to its website, in the Southeast. Just around the corner is PT’s 1109, the city’s other gay exclude, which opened in 2000.
Through discussions with bar owners and patrons and reviewing records from Historic Columbia, The Carolina News and Writer uncovered a strange statistic: Columbia, in 2022, has only those two same-sex attracted bars, the lowest number in the city since 1960. The number highlight
1109 Assembly Street, Columbia SC, 29203
Hours:
Sunday 6pm-2am
Monday 5pm-2am
Tuesday 5pm-2am
Wednesday 5pm-2am
Thursday 5pm-2am
Friday 5pm-2am
Saturday 5pm-2am
For over 20 years, PT’s 1109 has been one of the most unique clubs and entertainment venues in Columbia, SC. PT's has been Columbia's long standing home for performative shows and live entertainment, offering unique nightly events as skillfully as promotions that bring our patrons an amazing and welcoming experience. With a long standing tradition of providing an astounding entertainment space for our vibrant community, we offer unparalleled customer service and a substantial beer and liquor selection as adv as amazing hand crafted cocktails. We offer something for everyone so come check us out and become part of the PT’s family.
Google Sites
Report abuse
Page details
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse
Legacy Bars of the Carolinas
Sign up for our free newsletter to acquire the latest LGBTQ news from the Carolinas in your inbox every week.
Fragmentary seems like the most appropriate pos to describe the history and society of oppressed people, and especially the LGBTQ+ community. Our heritage and identity has often gone undocumented for shrink from of unintentionally providing information that could lead to unwanted trouble from our oppressors. Call it a fail guarded, if you will, but the termination result was/is a huge loss of LGBTQ+ history prior to the 1980s.
In other instances, our history was often deemed as insignificant or unworthy of being saved by those in a position of authority to make decisions about historical preservation. As late as the mid 1990s I can still recall the shock I felt when I was informed by a periodical librarian at the Atlanta Fulton County Public Library that copies of locally produced gay and lesbian publications were thrown away when each new edition arrived, unlike the mainstream straight newspapers and magazines, which were typically archived.
When I inquired as to why, the librarian shot me an incredulous watch and replied with a patronizing to