This section of the site contains advertisements for 1970's Castro businesses that I've culled from old newspapers and magazines. Most of the businesses were gay owned and operated. The others were at least gay friendly. They had to be in order to survive.
The ads show the broad spectrum of merchandise and services available right in the Castro and illustrate how self-sufficient the neighborhood was. Everything from bars, restaurants, clothing, food, and banking was in the heart of the Castro. Even specialties like music, pet shops, gift shops, gyms, book stores, art galleries, leather, and even a print shop were right there.
There are now 3 pages of ads, each containing about 18 ads. Pages 1 and 2 have been modified, page 3 is completely new, and a new 4th page consists of 32 matchbooks. This page was created by my dear friend Ken of Grommet Graphics at Green Point, New South Wales, Australia. He created it using Macromedia Flash, one of the new hi-tech interactive technologies. It is a very big file, around 800 K, and may not function well until most of it is loaded. If you have a very slow connection, you may want to skip it.
Thanks to the GAY AND LESBIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA for permission to include some of the matchbooks in their collection.
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