The Stables (San Francisco Leather Bar/70's)

The Stables — 1123 Folsom Street, San Francisco

At 1123 Folsom Street, The Stables was part of the rough-edged leather and western bar culture that made San Francisco's South of Market district one of the great gay neighborhoods of the 1970s.

The Stables catered to a masculine crowd of leathermen, cowboys, bikers, and Levi's-and-boots regulars, blending two styles that had become closely intertwined in gay culture. Western bars offered their own version of masculinity—denim, plaid, boots, mustaches, and country music—alongside the black leather and motorcycle imagery that increasingly defined SoMa.

Folsom Street was rapidly becoming the center of that world. Former warehouses and industrial buildings provided inexpensive spaces for an extraordinary collection of gay bars, bathhouses, sex clubs, restaurants, and businesses. Places like The Stables existed alongside a growing leather community that would eventually make Folsom Street internationally synonymous with gay leather culture.