VIDEO: A day after a fire officials believe a power line knocked down by a garbage truck started a fire at The 19 Bar in Minneapolis’s Loring Park, long-time patrons “were in shock.”
Those were the words of Bubba Thurn with Twin Cities Pride on Saturday. He is also a Loring Park history buff and has been stopping by The 19 Bar on his way home for as long as he’s lived nearby.
“It was devastating for myself and the community members,” Thurn said, describing the bar, “like a second living room to gather with your community.”
The bar was standing long before Thurn became a regular. It became The 19 Bar and a safe haven for the LGBTQ+ community in the 1950s, a time when there were none others like it.
“If I’m not mistaken, it is the oldest queer bar in Minnesota and possibly in the midwest at 76 years old,” Thurn said.