Since this story was published, there has been a change in Department of Transportation policy. According to information given to Mr. Bernardin, the DOT will now do the removal and replacement without additional charge for lights that have been privately funded. So the Julius' lamppost is back on track.

 
In order to show Julius’ commitment to the neighborhood and in memory of departed friends, a fund-raising project was proposed to raise $4,000 for a cast-iron Bishop’s Crook lamppost to be placed outside the front door.  The Department of Transportation was to instal it as part of Greenwich Village’s effort to replace the unattractive ‘cobra head’ lampposts. A plaque was to read:

IN MEMORY OF OUR  FRIENDS
Julius’  2005

Unfortunately, the DOT changed its policy of free removal and installation for privately funded lamps. According to Manhattan DOT Commissioner Margaret Forgione, the entire cost of approximately $10,000 must now be covered by anyone wishing to privately fund a lamp. This will undoubtedly effect the number of new lamps than will be turning up on Village streets. Undaunted, however,  we are now looking into installing  a lantern over the front door, that has long been missing.  This, too, will have to go through the Landmarks Commission.  We need to raise $1,000 for the lantern and installation.  T-shirts are available.  (Cost of the lamppost is $4,000) Just drop in.

The campaign to replace the cobra head lamppost outside the front door with a new lamppost was to have been financed by the sale of a new Julius’ T-shirt with three of the familiar basset hounds that are part of the foot railing in the bar.  Rumor has it that the basset hound was the original Julius, the owner’s dog.

Julius’ is the oldest bar in the West Village and the oldest gay bar in New York.  The building dates to 1826; it was built as a 2 1/2 story frame dwelling with a brick front.  In 1840 Adam McCandless had his grocery there. Terry Miller, in Greenwich Village And How It Got That Way, dates the bar to 1864. The side door was the entrance when it was a speakeasy.  It was then, he speculates, that jazz performances began.  A 1959 guidebook describes the burgers as “peerless.”  Live music continued until the 1960s.  Other sources say that Fats Waller played there; it was frequented by Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams,  Rudolf Nureyev and Edward Albee.  An interior shot appears in the 1969  movie The Boys In The Band. 

A Guide To Lesbian and Gay New York Historical Landmarks contains the following: “In the 1950s, Julius’ started to attract gay customers.  Serving gay patrons was in violation of the State Liquor Authority’s rules, prompting many bar owners to post signs stating “If you are gay, please go away.”  In 1966 the Mattachine Society staged a “sip in” here and were turned away.  They had the city’s Commission on Human Rights bring a discrimination case and in 1967 the state court ruled that the Liquor Authority needed ‘substantial evidence’ of indecent behavior (not same-sex kissing or touching) to close a bar, thereby reversing years of discrimination.”  For more information contact:

Tom Bernardin — Save America’s Clocks
212-229-0202
 www.clocks.org