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Rainbow City: Mapping Queer Newark
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This is a contributing entry for Rainbow City: Mapping Queer Newark and only appears as part of that tour.Learn More.

Murphy's Tavern

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

Murphy's Tavern was a gay bar in Newark, New Jersey for many decades. Along with gay bars in New Brunswick and Asbury Park. Murphy's Tavern helped challenge regulations on homosexuals going to bars. In 1967, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that so long as they were "well-behaved", there could be no restrictions on homosexuals patronizing bars and taverns. Although it was not always welcoming for all members of the queer community, it became more welcoming over time. For decades, Murphy's was a popular destination for the queer community in Newark. The Tavern eventually closed and was demolished in the early 2000s.

Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

For decades, Murphy's Tavern was a popular gay bar in Newark, NJ. It was supposedly the only gay bar in Newark in the 1969s and 1970s. The Tavern is no longer present today, but it is an important and rich part to Newark's queer history. The bar also worked with other gay bars in New Brunswick and Asbury Park, New Jersey to challenge antigay regulations on bars and taverns. In 1967, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled that so long as they were well-behaved, there could not be restrictions on homosexuals patronizing taverns. The Tavern was eventually demolished in the early 2000s.

A former patron of Murphy's described it as, "It was small. It was just a bar, you walk in the door and then there was this U­shape bar, old wood and there was paneling just 1970s. And that’s really what it was. You had the two sexy bartenders behind, male of course with no shirts on and you know. So it was just that type of environment,” (June Dowell-Burton 24).

Although, not all members of the queer community were welcome. Angela Raine remembers Murphy's as being unwelcome for transgender individuals, "He just wasn't crazy about trans women being there. The only way that you actually were able to come in is if you really knew somebody that was close to the owner, and the owner knew you, or if they had a drag show. If they had a drag show, they didn't want you seen. They wanted you in the back or you had to leave after the show."

While it was a popular gay bar, it was not exclusively a queer space, “They’re saying straight during the day, that most of the staff, who were bartenders at night, worked there during the day. Whether or not they were bus boys, or the cook, or whatever, they worked there. A lot of the patrons during the day were straight, but it was also mixed. You had gay people that have lunch there, you could get a good lunch there. That was the whole thing. I’m talkin’ about an affordable, decent lunch, for not that—it wasn’t that expensive. I don’t remember it being no more than, you could feed two people with $10.00. Then you talk about drinks on top of that? Yeah, so it was very much that, it wasn’t totally exclusive gay during the day. It’s just that they had a patronage. They had a lot of the business people who were looking for just to have a decent lunch (Aaron Frazier 17 Interview 3)."

In the early 2000s the bar was demolished to make way for the Prudential center, removing an iconic and popular gay bar in the city.

Sources

Angela Raine, Queer Newark Oral History Project. Accessed May 12th 2021. https://queer.newark.rutgers.edu/interviews/angela-raine.

June Dowell-Burton, Queer Newark Oral History Project. Accessed May 12th 2021. https://queer.newark.rutgers.edu/interviews/june-dowell-burton.

Aaron Frazier, Queer Newark Oral History Project. Accessed May 12th 2021. https://queer.newark.rutgers.edu/interviews/aaron-frazier.

Additional Information