Without targeted help, many may not recover from this devastating crisis,” said Joey Burgess, owner of The Cuff Complex and Queer Bar, two of Capitol Hill’s most cherished gay bars. “Even in the best of times these businesses struggle and often disappear. That same month, orders from Washington State Governor Jay Inslee forced non-essential businesses on Capitol Hill to close their doors. By March, over 1,000 of Seattle’s King County residents had tested positive for COVID-19, according to the Washington State Department of Health. On January 19, 2020, the United States reported the country’s first novel coronavirus case in Snohomish County, Washington - just 10 miles northeast of Seattle’s Capitol Hill. Most have now been shuttered for many months.”
“They constitute a major social hub and a significant economic driver. “Prior to the pandemic, Capitol Hill was famous for its nightlife, including bars catering to the LGBTQ community,” he told The Click. Jamie Pedersen is the Washington state senator who oversees parts of Seattle, including Capitol Hill (where he also lives). | Credit: Aeryn SaintĪ walk down Capitol Hill these days reveals lonely park benches, unplugged “open” signs, and chairs stacked on top of bare restaurant tables. The neighborhood typically sees thousands of visitors each weekend, on top of its nearly 20,300 residents.Ī sign of Gay City downtown Capitol Hill. I don’t think it affected us until probably a month to three months in, when we realized that we probably will never go back to those places ever again.”Ĭapitol Hill is known for its rainbow crosswalks, gay and lesbian bars, pride parades, and historic LGBTQ businesses. “It’s a place they can go into and feel at home and I think that’s important for every group of people to have.“Most people in the LGBTQIA+ considered bars a better safe space than most of our own personal residences,” Bradshaw said. “We still need a place we can call our own and that’s what The Wildrose has always been to people,” Brothers said. To directly support The Wildrose, donate to the bar’s GoFundMe or buy merchandise on its website. The Lesbian Bar Project runs until Thursday and funds will be evenly distributed to the participating bars. I’ve just seen everything, weddings and funerals and memorials - it’s something more than just a place to me too.”īrothers and Manning have reduced the hours because of COVID-19 restrictions, but takeout is still available. “I’ve had such incredible experiences there and relationships from there,” Manning said. Most recently, they've seen an uptick in patrons who fall outside the traditional clientele - straight men and other young people who have flooded the Capitol Hill bar scene over the past several years.īut despite those changes and the ongoing global pandemic, the owners remain determined to keep The Rose afloat. Through the years she continued visiting the bar, where she hosted what she called a “Red Rag” party to celebrate menopause.īoth Brothers and Manning have seen the neighborhood and bar change throughout the years.
Longtime patron Maggie Bloodstone remembered first going to the bar for its open mic nights in 1986. KNKX Shelley Brothers, co-owner of The Rose in Seattle's Capitol Hill. “It was a place to be ourselves and it didn’t feel like there were all that many places then.” “I could dress the way I wanted, talk the way I wanted, be affectionate the way I wanted,” Manning said. Like so many others, the bar was a place where she could feel completely herself. “There was all this stuff and coming from Nevada it was.it was like coming home.”Īt the time, Manning had just come out, at the age of 25, and started working at The Rose.
“When I moved to Seattle it was like ‘oh my God.’ There was Broadway Market, which was like a gay mall, and there were bars - gay bars, there were gay bookstores,” Brothers recalled of the time she arrived in 1992. And in 2005, Brothers and Manning bought out the third person and have co-owned the bar since. Shelley Brothers bought one of them out in 2002. In 2000, Manning and a couple of her co-workers put together a business plan and bought the bar. The Rose, as it's known, is a part of the Lesbian Bar Project, a fundraising campaign to help the remaining bars around the country survive the pandemic.Ĭo-owner Martha Manning first got a job as a bartender at The Rose in 1997 after moving from the East Coast. Now, the bar is facing an unknown future. The Wildrose opened on New Year’s Eve in 1984 in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. There are only a few lesbian bars left in the United States and one of them is in Seattle.