The Polish Hill bar best known as Donny’s Place was a hub of LGBTQ life in Pittsburgh from its opening, in 1973, to its closure, in 2022. Now activists are seeking a city historic designation for the shuttered building located near the base of Herron Avenue near Liberty.
“Donny’s holds such an incredible history, mostly for the queer and trans community, but also for Polish Hill on the whole,” said Lizzie Anderson, who co-nominated the building for historic designation with fellow Polish Hill resident Matt Cotter. They say it would be Western Pennsylvania’s first historic landmark honoring queer history — and that the designation would save the building from potential demolition at the hands of developers.
Anderson and Cotter submitted the historic nomination in October, with support from local journalist and historian Dade Lemanski and the nonprofit Preservation Pittsburgh.
The first public meeting on the nomination will take place virtually Mon., Dec. 16. It’s accessible via the city’s Historic Review Commission website.
The bar was owned by Donald Thinnes, a Vietnam Veteran and associate of legendary gay club owner Robert “Lucky” Johns who played a key role in LGBTQ life here over the decades.
Thinnes, who died in January, was a founding member of both the Pittsburgh Tavern Guild, a pioneering gay business association, and the Delta Foundation of Pittsburgh, the LGBTQ advocacy organization which for years organized the annual Pittsburgh Pride celebration and other community events. Lemanski said Thinnes was also involved in launching such extant groups as the Lambda Foundation, Shepard Wellness Community and the Persad Center.
“Donny’s is totally central to the relational and infrastructure building of a lot of the enduring gay institutions in the city,” said Lemanski who interviewed Thinnes and was a patron of Donny’s in its later years.
The bar, originally known as the Norreh Club, went by a variety of names over the years, including Leather Central.
In 1984, Donny’s Place served as an early recruitment site for the Pitt Men’s Study, a pioneering effort to understand and reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Anderson and Cotter said the nightspot also hosted live entertainment including pageants, community meetings, fetish nights, fundraisers, memorials, spaghetti dinners and hot-dog roasts.
“It never was just a gay bar,” said Lemanski. “It really functioned as a community center.”
The specter of the building’s demolition was raised starting in 2019, when developer Laurel Communities announced plans to build 30 market-rate townhomes on the three acres Thinnes owned, including the site of the still-operating bar. The plan drew immediate community opposition, and was the subject of a lawsuit filed by the Polish Hill Civic Association against Laurel Communities and the city’s Zoning Board.
The Polish Hill Civic Association today says it is open to development on the site that includes affordable housing and is sensitive to other community needs. Neighbors have objected to Laurel Communities’ proposal over concerns including gentrification, infrastructure and the safety of the steep hillsides on the property.
The project’s future is unclear. A message to Laurel Communities was not returned by press time.
Thinnes’ estate still owns the property, and Anderson and Cotter filed the historic nomination without its involvement. Messages to the estate’s executor were not returned by press time.
“Historic nomination puts an immediate hold on demolition of the Donny’s Place building, and likely a pause on the prospective development,” reads an online petition launched in February, weeks after Thinnes died. “If the nomination is granted, then the building will have to be respected forever.”
The nomination must go before the city’s Historic Review Commission and then approved by city council.
Anderson suggested that an appropriate use of the site might include affordable housing for queer and trans elders. But, she added, “The first goal is to save the building because we know all the beauty and history that has happened there.”
