Herb's Lounge (Durham North Carolina Gay Bar/70's and 80's)

Herb’s Lounge — Durham, North Carolina Gay Bar Tee

Before Durham had a large, visible LGBTQ+ nightlife scene, there was Herb’s Lounge.

Located at 228 Hunt Street in downtown Durham, Herb’s was opened by Herb Rigsbee, an important figure in the city’s early gay nightlife. Rigsbee had previously run the bar in the basement of the old Washington Duke/Jack Tar Hotel, which had become one of the few reliable gathering places for gay men in Durham during the 1960s. When the hotel was demolished, Herb created a place of his own.

By 1978, Herb’s Lounge was firmly established as a gay bar. It was a wonderfully unpretentious neighborhood joint: beer, brown-bagging, a jukebox, dancing, and a mostly male crowd that included all ages and types.

And it had a reputation for cruising. Period gay guides described Herb’s as “cruisy,” with an older crowd and some motorcycle and leather clientele. One former regular remembered sitting at the bar with an attorney on one side and a gravedigger on the other—which may be the best possible description of a neighborhood gay bar.

That mattered in 1970s North Carolina. Herb’s wasn't simply someplace to have a beer. Bars like this created a place where gay people could find one another, socialize, cruise, exchange information, and build community in a city where being openly gay still carried considerable risk.

Rigsbee later operated another gay venue on Ninth Street, but Herb’s Lounge remains part of the earliest documented history of queer nightlife in Durham.