This was my chance to finally get inside! The music was loud the dance floor looked amazing. The world was a different place then.)īy the time we made it to the Brook, it was 1 a.m. (Note to young readers: Yes, Westport had many bars. To show off my town, I decided to take her to every bar from the Norwalk line to Fairfield. One summer in the 1970s, a college friend visited. Wondering who - and what - lurked behind those ramshackle walls consumed gay teenagers. Knowing there was a gay bar right down the street created both tremendous excitement ( there are people like me!) and abject fear ( what if someone sees me looking at it?). (The former record holder, it’s said, was in New Orleans - and demolished by Katrina.)įor 7 decades, every gay boy growing up in Westport has told the same story. (I don’t pray often, but please God, don’t let it be a bank.)īefore it goes, let’s pay our respects to a bit of Westport lore - and, believe it or not, a nationally historic place.Īt 71 years old, the Cedar Brook has been called the oldest continually operating gay bar in the United States. It’s a ramshackle old building - scary, almost - and whatever is erected there will be much more profitable than a gay bar. I’m sure whoever owns it will tear it down. The new rent is out of bar owner Clem Bellairs’ reach. The gay bar outlasted them all.īut it won’t last much longer.
The Brook - now called the Cedar Brook - is still there. Today the state police barracks is Walgreens. The strip club - Krazy Vin’s - was next door, directly across Cedar Road. It sat on the Post Road near the Exit 18 connector - directly across from the state police barracks. Once upon a time, Westport had both a gay bar and a strip club.