Images of working class masculinity are central to leather iconography so the area's blue collar labor force was the stuff of fantasy. The economy of the area was based on low rent commercial and light industrial use. In the early sixties, rents were low and buildings cheap. South of Market served gay men well as the "headquarters" of the leather community. By the late 1970's gay men were a significant residential population in the area. Housing in the neighborhood was relatively cheap, and it had become more available as some of the older residents began to be displaced by the early stages of redevelopment. Gay men wanting to live near the bars and attracted by the area's ambience had begun moving into South of Market after the opening of the Tool Box. A third major wave crested between 19, and included the Black and Blue, the Arena, the Trench, the Cave, Headquarters, the Stables, the Eagle, and Chaps. Other early seventies places included the Barracks (a bathhouse, not a bar) and the Red Star Saloon on the corner of Folsom and Hallam Alley. The Bootcamp opened on Bryant in 1971 and the Ambush was established on Harrison in 1973. It was succeeded by the Cow Palace Saloon, a place that had no name, the Phoenix, the No Name (referring back to the unnamed place), the Bolt, the Brig, and finally, the Powerhouse.Īnother wave in the early seventies expanded leather territory south to Harrison and Bryant. The first bar there was called the In Between since it was between Febe's and the Ramrod. A succession of bars came and went for the next two decades at 1347 Folsom, between 9th and 10th. The Ramrod followed a few blocks east in 1968. Febe's and the Stud both opened at the western end of this core area in 1966. as the symbolic center of the local leather community. When the Tool Box was torn down for redevelopment in 1971, old patrons salvaged souvenir bricks from the rubble.Īs the Tool Box faded in popularity, a wave of bars established Folsom between 7th St. A photo of the bar with many of the regulars standing in front of the Arnett mural appeared in Life magazine in 1964.
Its walls were covered with murals by artist Chuck Arnett, whose work graced many other leather institutions over the years. Located South of Market, it was wildly successful and became a focal point for a burgeoning community. The Tool Box was the prototype San Francisco leather bar. The leather bars did not migrate South of Market until the early sixties, when the Tool Box opened at Fourth and Harrison. Photo: Crawford Barton, Gay and Lesbian Historical Society of Northern California