Mineshaft - The history

The Mineshaft opend as private cluab on come club October 8th, 1976.

It was in Washington Street 835, in Manhattan's Greenwich Village.

Many gay bars, also leather and fetish, were in this area of ​​New York, called Meatpacking District.

Among them the most well-know was probably the Ramrod and the most hard was (as you can guess from the name) the The Toilet . Both of them can be found in the movie Cruising, at numbers 394 and 400 West 14TH Street.

The Mineshaft was also attended by many celebrities like the filmmakers Vincente Minnelli ("An American in Paris"), Rainer Werner Fassbinder ("Querelle"), Rock Hudson ("Giant"), the artists Tom of Finland and Keith Haring, the above mentioned photographer Mapplethorpe, and more.

Over the weekend only a few people came before 2am: the local became "full" around 5 am. During the week, however, people arrived early and went away quite early too.

The men who frequented the Mineshaft were hyper-masculine in the body, in the type of sex, and in the dresscode. Usually, the customers wore leather, cowboy clothing, motorcycle wear, workers gear or uniforms like those of the police.

Transvestites or transsexuals were not allowed.

Quicky, it became the 'temple' of “kinky sex” or simply of the non-traditional sex. The costumers could really do what they wanted without fear of being judged.

The Mineshaft was closed by the Health Department of New York on November 7th, 1985 for violation of the new anti-AIDS policies (in these years the AIDS epidemic was spreading), but also because without a liquor license.

Today, where the Mineshaft was, there is a plumber company.

Yet, after more than thirty years from its closure, many gay men in New York and around the world still speak about the Mineshaft and remember it as a mythical and legendary place