🏺Ric gay spaces 1/6

September 9th 2025

Richmond’s Gay Spaces part 1 of 6

Queer life in post–WWII Richmond quietly grew at the margins. It was illegal to serve a homosexual, much less operate a gay bar. Marroni’s, Renee’s, and Rathskeller’s in the Capitol Hotel offered some of the first places to meet, though all were eventually shuttered in secession by ABC crackdowns. Benny’s café on Broad Street kept a hidden back room where gay men could socialize in relative safety, while Smitty’s on Sheppard Street welcomed lesbians and women’s softball teams. These spaces were fragile—laws didn’t change until the early ’90s—but even under threat, people found ways to build community.

By 1978, the legacy of those early spaces began to emerge more openly under shifting attitudes. The spirit of Smitty’s found a new home at Babe’s of Carytown. Babe’s grew into one of the longest-running lesbian bars in the country, famous for its pool tables, patio, and volleyball court—but even more for the community it fostered across generations. Benny’s lineage, meanwhile, lived on in the Broadway Café, where queer Richmonders finally had a public dance floor instead of a hidden jukebox alcove. (We’ll do more on the mob-run gay bars of the ’70s next.)

Last week, Richmond lost the woman who carried that legacy. Vicky Hester, who owned and guided Babe’s for four decades, passed away at 71. Under her leadership, Babe’s endured changes in law, culture, and nightlife. At a time when lesbian bars across the U.S. were closing, Babe’s kept its doors open—making it the oldest still-operating lesbian bar in the country (though contested, since Seattle’s Wildrose opened explicitly as a lesbian bar, while Babe’s quickly became one organically years earlier).

Benny’s and Smitty’s showed that Richmond’s LGBTQ people needed community. Broadway Café and Babe’s carried that tradition into the open. And thanks to Vicky, Babe’s remained a constant: a place of resilience, welcome, and joy to this day.