![greg from the eagle gay bar greg from the eagle gay bar](https://irs1.4sqi.net/img/general/700x700/361141_WgonU0u75Cg6jvU7r-WdPXcg2d5g_oyPun0ww99L03o.jpg)
In April 2017, former Springfield Mayor Bob Stephens guest-hosted a charity bingo game there along with one of the club's resident performers, Autumn Holiday.
![greg from the eagle gay bar greg from the eagle gay bar](https://www.pinknews.co.uk/images/2018/07/eagle-london-facebook-2-650x433.jpg)
In its six years, Touché has become known for hosting drag performances most weekends and charitable events including bingo games on some Sunday afternoons.įor example, in 2016 the bar raised $11,633 for charities and nonprofits, according to its Facebook page. These events sometimes included fundraisers to help drag artists pay for travel to regional and national competition pageants. Those include The Peanut Gallery (open 1994 to 2000) The Edge (2000-2012) along with the most recent club, Touché (2012-present). Since the early 1990s, the no-frills structure has been a fixture in the life of LGBT Springfield as home of three popular gay bars. It's unclear if the Touché building was erected around that time, Sellars said, though he said it appears that it could be that old.Īs of 1940, it was the home of a Social Security Administration office, Sellars said. John Sellars, executive director of the History Museum on the Square, said that public records indicate that by 1925, the real estate was used for a grocery store. Its north wall still carries a painted mural celebrating that company, which now mainly operates out of a building at Kimbrough Avenue and Walnut Street.īallew said it's not clear how old the building is but that his company bought it from the owners of Springfield Grocer Company. dates back to at least 1968, when it was put into use for the Ballew Saw & Tool company. 31 - an extension from the timeframe outlined in an earlier version of the contract, which allowed Ballew to set the closing date of the transaction as late as Monday of this week. The February plan shows that the rest of the block would be remade into a "central commons and urban park," possibly including a giant cashew nut sculpture, along with a multi-story parking garage on Water Street near Missouri State University's eFactory.īallew, Touché's landlord, said that the current sale contract provides for a closing date as late as Dec. "We are hopeful to find a new home and continue serving the community," Welch said.Ī Vecino Group plan released in late February indicates that Touché and adjacent real estate along Phelps Street and Boonville Avenue would be replaced by an L-shaped office building with multiple floors, including street-level commercial space. At that time, Welch added that Touché management planned to relocate the bar.Īs of Monday, the nightclub still plans to relocate, Welch said, though he declined to share details on the record. They were in "shock," Welch told the News-Leader last summer. In July 2017, Touché management said that it learned from news reports, not its landlord, about the approaching sale and demolition of the bar property.
GREG FROM THE EAGLE GAY BAR FOR FREE
The 2010 plan indicated that the entire block where Touché is located was to become a "center for free enterprise and small business development." Boonville Ave., at the southeast corner of Phelps Street. It is well inside an 88-acre zone designated for redevelopment as Missouri State University's IDEA Commons, according to a plan adopted by City Council in October 2010. The building is an aging structure at 414 N. Last July, News-Leader and other media reports made public updated downtown redevelopment plans that, if implemented, would mean the end of the Touché building. They will be announced on the bar's Facebook page, he said. Reached by the News-Leader on Monday, Touché manager Jacob Welch said that he and the bar staff were planning farewell celebrations, but no dates were set. Seeking information on when demolition might happen, the News-Leader reached out to a Vecino Group official three times for this report but has not yet heard back. The property is worth $237,900 for the building and its half-acre site, according to the Greene County Assessor's 2018 appraisal. "This will mark the end of decades of history for this community," the announcement stated.īut the owner of Touché's downtown building, Jack Ballew, said Monday that while the real estate is under contract for sale, the sale has not yet closed.īallew said that he does not know when the buyer, a Springfield-based development firm called the Vecino Group, plans to tear down the building. Over the weekend, one of Springfield's three gay bars announced that its long-anticipated closure would happen in about a month.Īccording to a statement posted to Touché Nightclub's Facebook account early Saturday evening, the bar's last day of business will be in four to six weeks, "due to the impending demolition of our building."