The Lincoln Bar — first at 13 S. Howard St. and later at 28 S. Howard St. — became Akron’s first gay bar of note and it remained mostly unrivaled until the 1960s, where its popularity waned as new bars opened. It opened in 1948 under the ownership of Charles Nakos and Molly Illitch. Nakos remained the bar’s primary director until his death in July of 1960. Newspaper articles often covered a slew of muggings, raids, and liquor license violations. On one occasion, a man reported that “a young woman took 50 cents from him” for which he slapped her, resulting in an all out brawl after the woman returned the slap with a barstool to the head. The bar’s spiral eventually resulted in the city refusing a liquor license transfer twice when the new owner, Anthony F. Granata, made the request. It closed in 1968 and Granata opened The Akron Cafe at 532 E. Market St.

The Cadillac Bar — located at 46 S. Howard St. — was a smaller bar known to be frequented by lesbians. Initially, it was owned by a trio of men: Theodore Nukes, Spiro E. Astaroff, and Mathew Kotney, but eventually the ownership fell onto just Nukes and Astaroff. Much like The Lincoln, The Cadillac was no stranger to break-ins and incidents of property destruction. One instance ended in the demolition of ten of the bar's benches following a customer's fit of rage. In January of 1958, Astaroff and Nukes found themselves faced with claims of improper conduct, most likely due to the nature of the establishment and the preferences of its patrons.

In the seven years it's doors were open, Eli's Cafe took up residence at 11 S. Howard St. It occupied the second story of the building. Similar to The Cadillac, it was most often frequented by lesbians, but it was regarded as a dive-bar and an uncouth, hole in the wall. Similar to other queer recognized clubs during this time, Eli's had its liquor license suspended in January of 1967. The bar also had it's fair share of interesting tales like a fire in the summer of 1966 wherein two patrons leaped from windows to escape.