WEST PALM BEACH, Florida – FIRST VIDEO: The Past, Present, and Future of HG Roosters Reconstruction
FIRST VIDEO: past, present and future of the reconstruction of HG Roosters.
HG Roosters, the LBGTQ bar that had to close due to a fire in May, begins an effort to preserve its history.
AJ Wasson, the owner of HG Roosters, is asking the city of West Palm Beach for a historic designation for its bar for two reasons.
“They had some challenges from a zoning and construction standpoint, which is actually where historic preservation comes in to benefit them,” said Friederike Mittner, West Palm Beach City’s historic preservation planner.
Preservation allows Roosters to vary during reconstruction and tax exemptions for improvements. But it would also preserve the significant history of LGBT people in Palm Beaches.
“It’s the oldest gay bar in the state of Florida,” said Julie Seaver, executive director of Compass.
Opened as a gay bar in 1965, it serves as a haven for gays closed.
“They couldn’t be openly gay because they would be harassed by the community,” Wasson said.
And to prevent hate crimes and harassment, they moved the entrance from the busy Belvedere Road.
“So Gene put the side door [near the back]Wasson said.
“When you walk into Galls, you would be harassed by the people who were driving for the people who were driving and things would throw you off,” said Rick Rose, a historian and author from Palm Beach.
“This also points to the historical nature of the windows. Somehow, it may have provided some sense of security,” Wasson said.
“It was our safe space, a safe haven for LGBT people to gather, socialize, pray and mourn the loss during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and early 1990s,” Seaver said.
“It’s a great historic site. It’s not an opportunity for all buildings,” Mittner said.
“The legacy of this building dates back to the mid-1960s, which is the same as New York’s Stone Wall Inn,” Wasson noted.
Stone Wall is where the gay rights movement began.
“Police were attacking bars because they were gay,” Seaver said.
This then caused riots in New York.
“We’ve never been just a business. We’re part of the community,” Wasson said.
“[Roosters] has raised money for countless organizations, ”Rose said.
“We want to highlight contributions to the community from a philanthropic perspective and obviously a cause of social justice,” Mittner said.
“We don’t want this to be apart of the missing story. We want to keep the roosters,” Wasson said.
To get the historical designation, there are a few more obstacles that need to be jumped. First, they must go before the historic board on February 23rd. Then, in March and April, they face the city commissioners where the measure is expected to pass.
With the local designation, they will join another 50 historic sites in West Palm Beach.