Riverside gay club

Gay clubs in Jacksonville history

The former Club Jacksonville lgbtq+ bathhouse at 1939 Hendricks Avenue in San Marco, now the offices of Group 4 Design.

Jacksonville has been home to bars, clubs and other venues catering to the LGBTQ community since at least the 1950s. At a time when being out came with huge social stigma and often personal danger, these spaces served as safe havens for LGBTQ Jaxsons to connect, find a date or simply be themselves in public. While online virtual dating and broadening acceptance of LGBTQ people in the wider community has led to a decline in the number of same-sex attracted bars and nightclubs, their role in Jacksonville’s LGBTQ history can’t be overstated.

By 1960, Jacksonville was house to at least three gay bars. In 1964, Roverta “Bo” Boen opened what became Duval County’s longest running gay prevent, Bo’s Coral Reef. Originally located on Beach Boulevard in Jacksonville Beach, Boen later moved it to Philips Highway. In 1980, Bo’s returned to Jacksonville Beach in a building on 2nd Street. For nearly 40 years, it was a favorite hangout for LGBTQ people from across the First Coast and a popular detect in the Jax Beaches bar scene. Bo’s Coral Reef survived Boen’s death in 20

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