10:30 AM - 1:30 PM

Tour meets at Hill Street Patio at Grand Central Market (near Horse Thief BBQ)

Parking: Grand Central Market Garage at 308 S Hill Street

Join Esotouric & special guest Nathan Marsak on a walking tour of 20th-century LGBTQ landmarks in the heart of Downtown Los Angeles for a time travel trip along The Run, the circuit of queer-friendly spaces that provided community, culture, and connection at a time when homosexuality was still criminalized and in the early years of gay liberation. Drawing on original archival research and featuring unpublished images, this tour will bring a lost world to life.

Starting from Grand Central Market, we’ll take you where the action was, from Pershing Square to the Main Street fun zone, private assignations to bold political organizing, groundbreaking legal cases to discrete bars, and even into the shuttered 1920s-era speakeasy beneath the King Eddy Saloon to see scrawled hook up messages in the only cruisy bathroom that’s a designated National Register landmark! Plus, we’ll put the nail in the coffin of the urban legend that there was a gay uprising at Cooper’s Do-Nuts that predates the Stonewall Rebellion.

The tour begins at 10:30 am sharp, with check-in time at 10:00 am at the Horse Thief BBQ patio outside Grand Central Market at 324 S Hill St, Los Angeles, CA 90013. Please arrive on time and proceed to the check-in table to get signed in and logged in to the smartphone slideshow. Scroll down for tour rules and recommendations.

For further information & ticket purchasing, please visit: https://esotouric.com/event/gay-downtown-walk-summer-2023/