Patrons helped each other out of financial struggles and donated time and money to FACES, the Family AIDS Clinic and Educational Services Program, which Nationwide Children’s Hospital opened in 1985. Owner Petie Brown always kept the bar open on holidays. Butch women and trans men found acceptance and community. Women fighting custody battles received advice from those who’d been there before. Women who were finally being accepted into the trades shared training opportunities with others. Troubles in life outside the bar melted away once people entered the safe space. So many of the stories Singleton has heard about Summit Station are similar. “Finally, one day, she was like, ‘Kid, what’s your story?’” Singleton recalls. Maybe talk a little bit, but not even too much because I didn’t want to give away too much information.”Īfter returning to the bar as an Ohio State University student, Singleton bonded with a Black bartender who also grew up in a small town. Singleton, 61, who identifies as nonbinary and transgender and uses they/he pronouns, wasn’t out back then.
The group would make the trip regularly and still somehow get back home before a midnight curfew. Singleton first entered Jack’s as a high schooler from Zanesville when a group of senior girls invited them and two friends. Among others, Singleton and Applegate heard from a couple who met at Summit Station when it was operating as Jack’s A Go Go in the 1970s.
A Go Fund Me page collected nearly $8,500 for festivities, a documentary project and the marker itself. So did a lot of the people who heard about their effort over the last three years. Singleton and Julia Applegate took the idea for a Summit Station marker, complete with extensive research about the bar’s history and importance, to the state, Columbus City Council and the University Area Commission. “We are constantly reminding people: They make history,” says Ben Anthony, community engagement coordinator for the Ohio History Connection. A $250,000 federal grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services will go toward identifying 10 more locations around the state for LGBTQ+ historical markers over the next three years. 29th Street in Cleveland commemorates the location of the city’s first Pride celebration, and a marker near Dayton’s main library commemorates the birthplace of lesbian writer Natalie Clifford Barney.)Īt a time when the culture wars have seeped into how-and whose-history is remembered, the state historical society is moving forward with plans to recognize more of Ohio’s LGBTQ+ stories. It’s the first of 128 state historical markers in and around Columbus to honor a place important to the LGBTQ+ community and just the third of more than 1,700 statewide. They didn’t think they were making history, either, when they shared pitchers of beer after softball games, formed a troupe of drag kings and organized coalitions to fight for women’s rights and safety.īut Ohio’s longest-running lesbian bar, far from forgotten 15 years after its last call, will be etched into Ohio history on June 10 with the dedication of a historical marker outside its old location at 2210 Summit St. Summit Station patrons didn’t think they were making history on those packed Thursday nights between 19 when the weekends would start early with dancing and drinks.
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