History of Gay and Lesbian Life in Wisconsin - Businesses - Bars and Clubs

 
Artony's
Location: 219 E. Keefe Ave., Milwaukee WI

Opened:
Closed:

 approx. 1980
approx. 1984
Clientele:

Male/ Female
Bar, Black

 

  
       
 

Very little is known about Artony's. It is remembered as being a gay/ lesbian bar predominantly frequented by members of the Black LGBTQ community.

The bar bought advertisements in the publication 'GPU News' starting in the August 1980 issue through that publication's final issue of January 1981 (the identical ad image in all those issues, see image to right). It was then listed in the Directory of 'Escape' magazine (from November 1981 to July 1982) and then 'Escape' newspaper (May-July 1983). Although a new gay publication named 'In Step' appeared in Milwaukee in February 1984, it never listed Artony's in its business Directory.

The building was demolished between October 2014 and October 2015.
Listing in Directory
(Escape magazine vol. 4-11, Nov. 1981)
 
Listing in Directory
(Escape magazine vol. 5-15, July 1982)
 
Listing in Directory
(Escape newspaper vol. 1-20, June 1983)
 
 


Ad for Artony's
(GPU News, Aug. 1980 to Jan. 1981)
 


Photo of the building 25 years later
(Google Images, May 2009)
 


Photo of the building 30 years later
(Google Images, October 2014)
 

Credits: web site concept, contents, design and arrangement by Don Schwamb.
Last updated: October-2023.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.