Jeffrey V. Moy, North Jersey History and Genealogy Center
June 28, 2019, marked the 50 anniversary of the Stonewall riots, in which a 1969 police raid at the Greenwich Village Tavern sparked six days of protests.
Demonstrators denounced laws that barred gay and lesbian Americans from congregating in public places, and the police harassment that many experienced, and the organized crime syndicates that ran the few businesses willing to serve gay customers.
At the same time the Gay Rights Movement was reaching a turning point across the Hudson River, a small bar in Morris County quietly was becoming the social nexus for generations of Northern New Jerseyans who otherwise would have few places to meet freely.
Dating to at least 1868, the Mine Hill Tavern had served countless travelers, workers, and locals, particularly the miners who lived near the Randolph Avenue establishment.
The tavern riginally was built as a stage coach stop at the corner of West Randolph Avenue, with the second floor “porch” receiving passengers and their luggage to the adjacent visitor accommodations. A tavern serving drinks and basic fare occupied the first floor, while owners and managers lived in the third story apartment.
Since the Mine Hill Tavern’s original guests merely were passing through, rooms were very Spartan, containing only a bed, pot belly stove and wash basin, with an outhouse out back. During the late 19th century, running water and electricity were luxuries enjoyed exclusively by Gilded Age estates in Morristown.
The bar also served the teamsters who drove the carriages, with local residents occupying any remaining bar stools.
When automobiles replaced stage coach travel in the early 1900s, the Mine Hill Tavern continued serving the town’s iron miners and blue collar workers under several generations of owners.
However, by the time Frank and Madeline “Maddie” Bellini purchased the property in the 1960s, mining had shifted from New Jersey’s rich magnetite deposits toward the easier and cheaper-to-harvest fields in Minnesota, Michigan, and the Midwest.
By 1967. the Mine Hill Tavern began catering to Northern New Jersey’s gay and lesbian population. Many longtime customers described the transition as taking place gradually, with mixed crowds slowly changing to predominantly gay customers as the evening progressed.
In Matt Connor’s 2003 book, Watering Hole: The Colorful History of Booze, Sex, and Death at a New Jersey Tavern, Maddie’s nephew Carl Gladish recounts: “There was a wonderful mixture of straight and gay people, wonderful Mine Hill people, Randolph people, people from Mount Fern.”
At first the gay clients “kept a lower profile when miners, hunters, and employees of Hercules and Picatinny were in the bar,” but it slowly transitioned into a much more open establishment.
With a rural population of only 3,500, Mine Hill was an unlikely location for Morris County’s first gay bar, especially at a time when such establishments were centered around large cities like New Brunswick, Newark, Asbury Park, and Trenton.
Even then, there was a constant threat of police raids and mob-affiliated bar owners who might “out” or blackmail customers, jeopardizing their livelihoods and families.
However, Maddie Bellini was no ordinary woman. Upon Frank’s death in 1969 she took ownership of the bar and made it her own.
Described as colorful and possessing an oversized personality, Maddie frequently welcomed the Gay Activist Alliance of Morris County (GAAMC) to the Tavern, where many of the group’s young members spent hours playing pinball and listening to the jukebox’s eclectic mix of popular music, ranging from Patsy Cline to disco.
Connor notes that Maddie never publicly addressed being gay herself, despite living with her longtime partner, Maurine, in the tavern’s third floor apartment, and her regular customers’ familiarity with the couple’s outrageous exploits together.
By the late 1970s, the Mine Hill Tavern reached the peak of its popularity, with crowds frequently spilling out into the sidewalk.
Customers included a mix of local youths, out-of-town lawyers, businessmen, and firefighters, and even minor celebrities. While Maddie and Maurine never experienced the same mob-related corruption or police harassment prevalent at urban bars, the added traffic and the sight of customers crowding along the street attracted scrutiny from local law enforcement.
Nevertheless, these confrontations, even those initiated by one troubled officer who aggressively confronted customers leaving the bar, were diffused after GAAMC members met with Mine Hill’s police chief and both sides reached an accord.
Other threats to patrons or vandalism against the bar by unlawful youths often were met by Maddie jumping on the back of the offender’s car, or customers defending themselves in brawls that quickly were broken up.
When the AIDS crisis of the early 1980s initially was ignored by state and federal officials, the disease took its toll on both longtime customers and bartenders, spurring a wave of activism to raise awareness and call for research funding and treatment.
During this period, the Gay Activist Alliance of Morris County was particularly active, becoming the largest organization of its kind in the state. Through it all, the Mine Hill Tavern continued as a hub of the gay and lesbian community, and Maddie and Maurine did what they could for their customers, keeping the business open on holidays to serve dinner to those rejected by their families.
Maddie Bellini ran the Mine Hill Tavern until the death of her partner Maurine in 1994. She decided to sell the business and retire to Florida. Robert and Barbara Spagna purchased the property, made extensive renovations, and reopened it as the Cornelius House Restaurant (named for original owner Thomas Cornelius), which they operated until 2001.
Sadly, Maddie Bellini’s retirement was short lived, as she was struck and killed three months later while driving to a restaurant with her sister Jean Sharp and friend Larry Winters.
Today the Mine Hill Tavern sits unoccupied on the corner of Randolph and West Randolph Avenues. For 140 years the unassuming three-story structure served as a sanctuary for weary travelers, a watering hole for area workers, and one of the few social outlets for three decades of gay and lesbian residents.
A 1986 Morris County Heritage Commission survey deemed the building historically insignificant, but like many of the area’s old buildings, the Mine Hill Tavern was where thousands of people met, formed friendships, fell in and out of love, and created a lifetime of memories.
Sources:
- Matt Conner, Watering Hole: The Colorful History of Booze, Sex, and Death and a New Jersey Tavern, First Books, 2003.
- Mine Hill Vertical File – North Jersey History & Genealogy Center Collections.
- Morris County Heritage Commission, Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders, Office of New Jersey Heritage, Morris County Historic Site Survey, New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, 1986.
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back in the late ’70s I used to enjoy going to that bar. atmosphere was very friendly. a lot of memories that I will treasure. I was in my twenties then now 70 years old.
Lived across the street from the tavern for many years, and it was an interesting place. One thing I have to credit the customers is they kept to themselves and didn’t cause any crime in any of the houses on the farm my folks rented a house on.