In 1971, Petie Brown, a trumpeter and young lesbian, got a part-time bartending job at Jack's A Go-Go to support her aspiring singing career. Word spread fast that a lesbian was behind the bar, and soon Jack's began attracting lesbian women in scores. Petie left the bar along the way, but the word was out, and the bar's owners welcomed the lesbian patrons. When the bar came up for sale 10 years later, Petie rounded up every penny she had and bought it. In 1980 she renamed it Summit Station, established it as a safe space for lesbians and friends, and thus was born Ohio's longest running lesbian bar. As Petie tells it, it was one of the first three lesbian bars in the United States. Forty-two years after the opening of the bar, a small group of former patrons banded together to pay tribute to Petie, the bar. and its thousands of patrons.
In partnership with the Ohio History Connection, a historical marker was placed permanently in front of the space that held Summit Station. The marker was dedicated on June 10, 2023. We are raising funds to cover the costs associated with making a documentary film to properly tell the story for future generations.
Free Beer Tomorrow is a documentary film project that tells the story of Jack's/Summit Station, Ohio's longest running lesbian bar. With interviews from Peter Brown — a classically trained musician turned bar owner — to pioneering LGBTQ+ lawyer and legal scholar, Rhonda R. Rivera, and former patrons running the gamut of tap dancers, professional women's football players, feminist activists, bartenders and drag kings, the film explores lesbian culture in an era where bars were one of the few safe-havens from an oppressive and homophobic world.
Summit Station touched so many lives. Let's tell the world how much it meant to all of us. Still in production, a rough cut of the film is anticpated in late 2024.
If you would like to be interviewed for the film and/or an Oral History project, please let us know by filling out this form.
Back Row: Julia Applegate, Sharon Huber, Judy Huber, LuSter Singleton
Front Row: Petie Brown and CJ Curtis
Interviewing Pat and Freddie, who met 48 years ago and had their first date at Jack’s in 1976.
Interviewing Rhonda R. Rivera, pioneering LGBTQ legal scholar, the woman who literally WROTE THE BOOK on homosexuality and the law in the 1970’s. She was also a patron of Jack’s/Summit Station.
Interviewing Mark Martin. Mark started doing drag after watching the queens have so much fun and deciding if they could do it so could he. As he tells it the queens took him in and he would get calls at all hours of the night asking him to perform.
Interviewing Lee Parfitt. Petie cites her as a mentor. Lee bartended at The Kismet in the 1970s. She supported and encouraged Petie when she had the opportunity to buy the bar.
Interviewing Debbie Nicholson.
Folks, thanks to the Greer Foundation we are closing out 2024 with the opportunity to double all donations up to $5K in the month of November. Score a free shirt when you donate $75 or more.