Gay Broadway (Chicago Gay Bathhouse/70's)

Gay Broadway — Chicago Vintage Bathhouse Tee

For a brief moment in the 1970s, Gay Broadway was part of Chicago’s rapidly expanding world of gay bathhouses, bars, discos, bookstores, and private clubs.

Located at 4409 N. Broadway, Gay Broadway operated in Uptown, north of the better-known gay nightlife developing around Lakeview. Like many smaller bathhouses from the period, its history is surprisingly difficult to reconstruct today. It appeared, disappeared, and left behind little more than old advertisements, listings, and pieces of ephemera like this shirt.

That is exactly what makes places like Gay Broadway worth preserving. Before apps and the internet—and at a time when simply being openly gay could still have serious consequences—bathhouses provided gay men with private spaces to meet one another and be around other gay men.

The wonderfully straightforward name also feels completely 1970s. No elaborate branding strategy required. You were on Broadway. It was gay. Gay Broadway.