For more than half a century, PJ’s Lounge occupied 80 Water Street in Augusta, becoming a landmark of Maine nightlife and, eventually, the state’s oldest continuously operating gay bar.
PJ’s originally opened in 1958, during an era when Maine’s strict liquor laws required bars to provide a certain number of seats and patrons were generally expected to remain seated—rules that made dancing, mingling, and meeting new people considerably more difficult.
The bar’s defining chapter began in the mid-1970s, when Roland Blais purchased PJ’s and transformed it into a welcoming LGBTQ+ gathering place. This was a period of enormous social change, just before Maine legalized same-sex sexual activity in 1977 and long before LGBTQ+ people received many of the legal protections recognized today.
Under Blais’s ownership, PJ’s became much more than a place to have a drink. It offered generations of LGBTQ+ Mainers a safe and familiar space where they could socialize openly, dance, celebrate, meet friends, and find community without fear of judgment. In a largely rural state where dedicated queer spaces were few and often separated by long distances, that sense of belonging was especially important.
While much of Maine’s visible gay nightlife eventually became concentrated in Portland and Ogunquit, PJ’s remained a vital gathering place in the state capital. Its longevity connected multiple generations—from those who discovered the bar during the early years of gay liberation to younger patrons entering a very different social world decades later.
Blais sold the business around 2005, and PJ’s served its final drinks in October 2009. Its closure marked the end of an extraordinary run and the loss of one of Maine’s most enduring LGBTQ+ institutions.
