The Mineshaft was a members-only BDSM leather bar and sex club for gay men located at 835 Washington Street, at Little West 12th Street, in Manhattan, New York City, in the Meatpacking District, West Village, and Greenwich Village sections. The Mineshaft attracted a wide range of patrons, some famous.
- Venue
- Mineshaft (gay club)
- Address
- 835 Washington Street
- Town
- Manhattan, US
The Mineshaft was a members-only BDSM leather bar and sex club for gay men located at 835 Washington Street, at Little West 12th Street, in Manhattan, New York City, in the Meatpacking District, West Village, and Greenwich Village sections. The Mineshaft attracted a wide range of patrons, some famous. Among those who frequented the club were author Jack Fritscher (who was present at its opening night and attended hundreds of times), Fritscher's lover Robert Mapplethorpe (who took many pictures of the Mineshaft, was at one point its official photographer, and once said, "After dinner I go to the Mineshaft."), gay erotic artist Rex, and Annie Sprinkle, who claimed she was one of three women ever allowed in. Freddie Mercury, Vincente Minnelli, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Rock Hudson, Michel Foucault, and Camille O'Grady are also known to have visited. Manager Wally Wallace (born James Wallace) said that he once refused entry to Mick Jagger, and a bouncer turned away Rudolf Nureyev. There was no sign on the entrance; the exterior has been described as "grimy". The location had previously been used by a gay bar, Zodiac. The entrance to the club was up a flight of stairs, on the second floor. The door was staffed by someone who rejected anyone wearing preppie clothes or cologne, and this was a widely known part of what made the bar influential. Originally the Mineshaft occupied only the second floor; the club soon expanded into the first floor below, accessed by stairs in the back. The upper floor or bar (no alcohol was sold, for legal reasons) had a roof deck. Promiscuity was celebrated at Mineshaft. Nudity or minimal clothing was encouraged, and a clothes check was provided. Areas were configured to encourage sex, including spaces designed to resemble a jail cell, the back of a truck, and dungeons; slings and cans of Crisco (at the time popular among gay men as a sexual lubricant preceding modern personal lubricant); spotlighted bathtubs in which men could let other men u