Before the Combat Zone, lower Washington Street was Gay Times Square, a mecca of bright lights, entertainment and a tolerance for life beyond the societal norms of heterosexuality.

In the early half of the 20th century, Washington Street, between Essex and Kneeland Streets, was home to numerous theaters and bars, making it a prime entertainment destination.

Prior to being plagued with strip joints with names like The Naked i Cabaret and the Pussycat Lounge, the neighborhood was home to Playland, the Petty Lounge and Touraine Cafe. The gathering places drew an LGBTQ crowd, while the local theaters, such as the Stuart Theater and the Pilgrim, created a show-business atmosphere that New York’s Times Square is known for.

Many of the bar owners in the area often used bribery or connections with organized crime to keep police from raiding their establishments, according to research from The History Project, a Boston-based LGBTQ history organization.

In the 1950s and 1960s, threats of persecution and prosecution kept the LGBTQ community underground, making many of the bars on Washington Street appealing.

The LGBTQ community has historically relied upon bars as gathering places where one could safely be open about sexuality, especially when meeting other people who might secretly be homosexual or bisexual.

“You had to pick up signals, indirect things,” said former South End resident Lois Johnson, referring to the difficult methods of meeting people outside of “safe” bars. “If you went to a place with a lot of other gay people, you felt comfortable.”

The transformation of Gay Times Square into the Combat Zone was, in part, a result of the redevelopment of Scollay Square into Government Center. Prior to the urban renewal effort, Scollay Square was home to many of the city’s seedier bars and entertainment establishments. Many businesses in the area that did not shut down relocated to Washington Street.

This led to the proliferation of strip clubs and pornographic movie theaters in the area, which changed the district into what became known as the Combat Zone. Both because the increase in vice attracted violent crime and because the increase in scantily-clad women attracted more military men on leave.

A desire to avoid the crime of the Combat Zone and the gradual increase in societal tolerance for the LGBTQ community contributed to the establishment of new gathering places in the South End into the 1980s, opening a new chapter in the history of Boston’s LGBTQ community.