Leon’s, the Mount Vernon bar that local historians call Baltimore’s oldest continuously operating gay bar, reopened Sept. 30. It had closed in July after the death of owner Ron Singer.
Customers started coming in as soon as the doors opened at 3 p.m., CBS News Baltimore reported.
Singer died July 7 at 66, the Baltimore Banner reported. A post from the bar said he’d run Leon’s for more than 20 years. The bar shut after a short final shift on July 15.
“We are trying our very best to reopen as fast as possible!” the bar posted on Instagram before it closed, the Banner reported.
Samm Singer and Sam Smith Are Buying Leon’s From Ron Singer’s Estate
Samm Singer, his youngest child, inherited the bar with three siblings. She and her husband, Sam Smith, a longtime Leon’s bartender, are running it, the Banner reported.
“Samm and I are lucky enough to have the opportunity to buy the bar soon from Ron’s estate,” Smith told the Banner. “But that’s going to be a process.”
CBS reported the couple were still working through the formal ownership transfer when the bar reopened. Smith and Tina Wallace manage it.
The sale has to clear the city liquor board, too. Changing the owners on Leon’s liquor license requires a public hearing, Baltimore Fishbowl reported in July. Under state law, a license expires if a bar stays closed 180 days without action to keep or transfer it.
“One of the worst parts of coming to work was seeing one of those signs on the door saying, ‘Hey, we’re shut down because of this [issue],'” Smith told CBS. “I never want that to happen.”
Club Car’s ‘Camp Leon’s’ Paid Bartenders During the Closure
While Leon’s was dark, The Club Car on West North Avenue hosted its trivia, bingo and dance nights, Baltimore magazine reported. The bars called it Camp Leon’s. It kept Leon’s four regular bartenders and its barback on the clock.
“This is one of those only-in-Baltimore moments,” Club Car co-owner Ryan Haase told the magazine.
Smith credited that help. “They kept people employed, people to eat their meals, pay their bills,” he told CBS.
Jack Mayhew was one of the first customers back. Mayhew said regulars had drifted to one bar during the closure but “always were hoping [Leon’s] was gonna reopen again.”
“It’s nice to see all my friends and family here with me,” Mayhew told CBS.
Leon’s at 870 Park Ave. Has Been a Gay Bar Since 1957
Convicted bootlegger Leon Lampe opened the bar soon after Prohibition ended in the 1930s, the Banner reported. By the late 1950s, most of its customers were gay men. It has entrances at 870 Park Ave. and 227 W. Chase St.
Baltimore Heritage calls Leon’s “Baltimore’s oldest continuously operating gay bar,” dating its gay era to 1957. Fishbowl calls it one of the oldest gay bars in the country.
Jim Becker, 81, came out in 1967. “Once I came out, I made it a point to go to Leon’s every night for a while,” Becker told the Banner in August. “That’s how most of us met our friends.”
Ben Egerman, who writes zines on Maryland’s queer past, told the Banner, “It represents the last of those old pre-Stonewall gay bars.”
Regular drink prices increased by 50 cents to $1 when Leon’s reopened. Happy hour prices stayed put.
“Prices aren’t changing that much,” Smith told the Banner.
