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Under his leadership, the bar went on to see renovations, and the comfy booths on the dance floor side were replaced by high top tables to make more room for the growing crowds.īlack promoters started working with Smith. Jeff Smith, a longtime employee of the bar, would come on as co-owner in the early 2000s and take over the running of the bar. She remains a co-owner to this day.īy now, the bar was serving a very mixed crowd and was on its way to becoming the most popular night spot in Detroit for the city’s African American LGBTQ community. Lorraine Karagas, Andy’s brother’s wife, took over at the bar when Andy died in 1997. Oftentimes, he’d go so far as to bail out a customer who’d gotten picked up by the cops on trumped up soliciting charges. He was a member of the Detroit Bar Guild and was known for having a good heart. Andy Karagas enjoyed enormous popularity in Detroit’s LGBTQ+ community. The Woodward continued to chug along throughout the ‘80s as other gay bars came - and just as many went. “They were holding up copies of the ‘Gay Liberator’ newspaper.” “That’s where I first met (legendary Michigan LGBTQ+ activists) Jim Toy and John Kavanagh,” Alexander recalled. “Blacks, if served at all, had their drinking glasses broken audibly as they were leaving the bar,” said longtime “Between The Lines” columnist Charles Alexander, who first started going to The Woodward in 1959 at age 23.
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And if they did get in, the humiliation would often continue. Black patrons would be required to present two forms of ID to enter. In the ‘60s and even the ‘70s, The Woodward, like other gay bars that had begun popping up around the city, was basically segregated and served a predominantly white crowd. He was known for, among other things, repeatedly calling out the phrase “Tonight’s the night,” his voicing ringing out loudly across the tiny bar. “We just opened it up and whichever way it went, it went,” Andy Karagas said in a 1973 interview with “Gayzette.” “And when it went gay all the way, we kicked out all the straights that night.”Īndy Karagas soon came out as gay himself and was a regular host at the bar. And by the end of the decade, it had become a full-time gay bar. Night by night, the Woodward gradually began attracting a gay clientele. William Karagas was the original owner, and Sam and Andy, his two brothers, helped him out. It did brisk business in the daytime and at happy hour thanks to being so close to the General Motors World Headquarters, then located on West Grand Blvd. The Woodward Bar & Grill was opened at its present location, near the corner of Woodward Avenue and Milwaukee Street in Midtown, in 1954. Main entrance of The Woodward (behind the building). They said people were in the lot like the bar was open. “I just got in my car and decided to come down here. “They sent me pics from Atlanta and California,” said Brown. Friends were texting him from all over as they heard the news. He said word of the fire traveled quickly not only throughout the city but the country as well. It was just love and fun.”ĭavid Brown said he’d been coming to the bar since 1975. “It was a place I could come and be myself with no judgment. “I came up here because this is my home, my place, my comfort zone, my happy spot,” she said. Krissy Jackson said she had been coming to The Woodward for more than 15 years. A crowd of around 50 had gathered by 9 p.m. Some came simply to remember, others to pay homage and raise a glass - or a bottle - one last time at the legendary bar.
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The bar continued to smolder late into the afternoon.īy dusk, as crews worked to board up the building’s front exterior, a crowd had assembled in the Woodward’s rear parking lot. Nearby residents, shoppers and workers were evacuated and QLine service was halted as firefighters worked to calm the blaze. Authorities say the fire is a total loss. The structure still stands, but the roof caved in on itself and is gone. The Woodward Bar & Grill, Detroit’s oldest gay bar, caught fire yesterday morning around 10:30 a.m.