Hiding down at 255 S Camac Street, Venture Inn was one of the oldest queer refuges in Philly — a building born as a stable in the 1830s, then a tea room, then a tavern, and eventually the kind of faded-glory gay bar that remembers better days than your hangover ever will.
In 1973, it went from “gay-friendly hangout” to bona fide gay bar — the kind of place a closeted kid or a wandering city slicker could stumble into, and leave feeling something they didn’t get anywhere else: home.
Over decades, Venture Inn kept doing what many bars “should,” but seldom pull off: it provided a quiet, loyal space — a jukebox, a drink, dim lights and familiar faces — where secrets felt safe and rough edges softened. Into the new millennium it went, surviving trends and turnover, until doors finally closed in January 2016, leaving behind memories, myths, and emptiness where laughter used to echo.
