Long before gay nightlife was visible, protected, or celebrated, 651 Club was already open in Fort Worth. Opening in 1969, it stood as one of the city’s earliest gay bars — a pre-Stonewall-era space built quietly, deliberately, and with real risk. At a time when discretion was survival, 651 offered community anyway.
Located on South Jennings Avenue, the bar became a steady anchor for Fort Worth’s LGBTQ community through changing decades, laws, and attitudes. It wasn’t flashy or trend-driven — it was dependable. A place to gather, to recognize one another, to exhale. For many, it was the first room where being openly gay felt possible at all.
The importance of 651 isn’t about spectacle — it’s about endurance. It represents the bars that existed before pride parades, before rainbow marketing, before safety was assumed. Spaces built out of necessity, courage, and word-of-mouth.
