The Eagle’s closing party at 142 11th Avenue was March 3-5, 2000.Ī new chapter in the history of The Eagle NYC was about to begin. Landlords were not renewing old leases and by the year 2000, Jack Modica chose to retire rather than to reopen The Eagle elsewhere. Old warehouses were converted into upscale loft buildings or art galleries. By the 90s the neighborhood was evolving and the frontier was now being gentrified. With the onset of AIDS in the 80s, sexual habits were changing and the gay community was reassessing itself. There once were almost 50 Eagle bars worldwide connected only by their common sense of the masculine ideal.Īs with all businesses, the Eagle experienced its ups and downs over the years. The Eagle bar which was now the definitive home to the man’s man inspired copies nationwide and eventually around the world. Leather contest in Chicago provided more visibility thereby increasing participation in the leather community and The Eagle sent its own representatives to compete. The works of Tom of Finland became icons for masculine homoeroticism and were finding their way into museums and galleries worldwide. In the meantime, the leather/ levi ideal was flourishing in the gay community.
Gay biker clubs held their club nights here and pool teams and softball teams were formed and served as a kind of community outreach in the spirit of friendly competition. The Eagle was open 7 days a week including holidays so there was always The Eagle if you had no where else to go. The Eagle quickly became engaged in many community-based activities such as holding tea dance benefits for national gay organizations. Nevertheless, the men loved their “home away from home” and were undeterred. Gay Bashing by marauding thugs was not uncommon in this remote area of New York. Its patrons loved the isolation and the raw masculinity of this dark playground on the West Side Highway. With a few coats of black paint and an old beat up motorcycle for decoration, an institution was born.īack in those days it was known as The Eagle’s Nest. In 1970, the Eagle Open Kitchen was acquired by Jack Modica who turned the pub into a leather/ levi bar. In 1969 the stonewall riots in Greenwich Village produced a new found pride in being gay and the closet doors were slowly opening. The Eagle bar originally was a longshoreman’s pub called the Eagle Open Kitchen at 142 11th Avenue at 21st Street from 1931 to 1970.