Another One Gone - Horse Cave, KY ABS Closed

[ErosWired]

They finally got ‘em - the authorities have forced the closure of the ABS in Horse Cave, KY, the only place for that kind of activity between Louisville and Nashville with the exception of a very dubious and out-of-the-way emporium near Fort Knox.

They charged them with running a house of abatement - essentially a house of prostitution, or a place that facilitates sexual activity - in part on the basis of the “back rooms” containing gloryholes, and the sale of poppers. They cited several people for indecent exposure in these “back rooms”.

What tipped the scales, apparently, was two deaths that took place there this last week, cause not specified, I’m guessing drug-related.

The owners agreed to permanently close and sell the property with a deed restriction prohibiting any future sale of sexually-related materials on the premises.

This has been a long-time goal of the county powers-that-be, who have always seen the adult store as a nuisance they couldn’t legally do anything about. I suspect this closure was achieved by strong-arming the owners with the threat of legal liability over the deaths on the premises. They folded sudden quick, and I’m guessing it was to avoid a threat of charges, but that’s just speculation.

In any case, there is now no establishment with gloryholes in any direction from Central Kentucky for men to meet without driving an hour or more.

Yes, Virginia, Hell is a real place.

[viking8x6]

That's a bummer. I had heard amazing things about that location and hoped to visit it someday.

[ErosWired]

1 hour ago, viking8x6 said:

That's a bummer. I had heard amazing things about that location and hoped to visit it someday.

Amazing is relative. It’s easy to rate as amazing when there’s nothing for comparison.

It wasn’t all that, to be honest, but it was all we had.

Frankly, it’s a miracle it lasted all the years it was there. Some of the local church-goin’ types were in a constant state of outrage over it. When I was there once I discovered some old granny had parked herself in a chair facing down the row of gloryholes, with a Bible in her lap and a scowl that would have curdled new milk.

It was situated in the middle of an outlet mall, and back when it first moved in, all the other businesses made an exodus, not wanting to be associated with it. Ever since, it was the only business in the entire deserted outlet mall. That’s part of what kept it going - it wasn’t near anything that authorities could point at like a church or a school. And it was all legal in the strict sense. The news report on the closure said one of the reasons cited was the sale of poppers, but isobutyl poppers are still not illegal here, and in my experience that’s all they sold.

[austin_submale]

Sadly that sort of story is not uncommon at all.  If it isn't strong arm tactics from repressive governments it is economic pressures.  We used to have 3 more bookstores with booths and a sauna here in the Austin area, but slowly over time they've closed down and we only have two places left.  And all that is despite the fact that Austin is generally a fairly tolerant place with a fairly large gay/bi/kinky presence.  Two of the bookstores here got closed down because they got the owner on tax charges I think.  The sauna closed a few years by my understanding primarily that the rent got too expensive for it to be profitable (problem a lot of bars and restaurants and other non-sex related businesses have here too).  The last bookstore to close was only doing so-so before Covid, and that appears to have been the final straw for it.  We still have a bunch of adult orriented stores that sell videos and toys and lingere and stuff...  but most of them don't have booths at all and/or they are super restrictive about only one person to a booth and stuff like that which means they effectively don't have them.

I wish I had the $$$ to open up something, because I think a well run store in the right location could make a lot of money.  But alas, I'm in no place to do anything like that.

 

[onlyraw]

Well Boston has not had a bath house in maybe 20 years?

and only one (maybe 2 - I haven’t checked since before Covid) ABS with booths- and the one I knew about was not actually in Boston but just north of town  

for a bathhouse you need to go to Providence- about a 45 min to an hour south

[myDNA4u]

This is a real bummer as this was probably my favorite ABS. There were always lots of truckers every time I was there and lots of redneck locals and a fair number of bikers. I typically stopped each fall and spring on my way to and from my winter stay in Florida.

[GIVEMESEED1974]

Unfortunate, but unsurprising.  I used to live in Nashville and would drive up to Horse Cave just for that video store about once/month.  Like any other venue, results could be mixed.  That being said, I've probably taken a mile of cock and a Great Lake's worth of cum in that back room (and the trucker's parking lot).  I loved it.

[ErosWired]

17 hours ago, austin_submale said:

We still have a bunch of adult orriented stores that sell videos and toys and lingere and stuff... 

There are still two or three of those in the area - if you want to pay outrageously marked-up prices. None of them seem to have caught on to the fact that you can get it all on the internet cheaper, in greater variety, often at higher quality, in the privacy of your home, shipped discreetly. How they stay in business is beyond me. Having a place in the back where people can actually connect is the thing they can’t get shipped discreetly to their door.

[ErosWired]

Just as a point of interest, the TheatairX ABS Clarksville, IN, just across the river from Louisville, which was similarly forced to close in August of last year, reopened a month later under a new managing entity calling itself “Clarksville Ministries LLC”.

It’s interesting that the owners of the Horse Cave ABS were asked to place a deed restriction on the property prohibiting the sale of adult-oriented materials by a subsequent buyer; the only party with the ability to require enforcement of that restriction would be the owners who sold it, and if they no longer own it, it’s hard to see them having an incentive to go to court to compel the new owners not to do something they were adversely prevented from doing themselves.

What’s ab-so-fucking-lutelty hilarious about this with regard to the frustration of the local officials in not really being able to  prevent this kind of development is that the people of this county would burn the whole goddamn county to the ground before they would accept a zoning ordinance of any kind, anywhere. They will not have anyone telling them what they can and cannot do, but it drives them crazy when they can’t dictate it to someone else.

So - if anyone out there is looking for a place to open an adult-oriented business, Hart County, KY has no zoning.

[FelchingPisser]

I had a good time there--occasionally.  It was very hit or miss...more so than many other locations, it seemed to me. 

But it certainly was a useful stop on the long drives between Michigan and Nashville...

[Hotrawbutt4u]

43 minutes ago, ErosWired said:

Just as a point of interest, the TheatairX ABS Clarksville, IN, just across the river from Louisville, which was similarly forced to close in August of last year, reopened a month later under a new managing entity calling itself “Clarksville Ministries LLC”.

It’s interesting that the owners of the Horse Cave ABS were asked to place a deed restriction on the property prohibiting the sale of adult-oriented materials by a subsequent buyer; the only party with the ability to require enforcement of that restriction would be the owners who sold it, and if they no longer own it, it’s hard to see them having an incentive to go to court to compel the new owners not to do something they were adversely prevented from doing themselves.

What’s ab-so-fucking-lutelty hilarious about this with regard to the frustration of the local officials in not really being able to  prevent this kind of development is that the people of this county would burn the whole goddamn county to the ground before they would accept a zoning ordinance of any kind, anywhere. They will not have anyone telling them what they can and cannot do, but it drives them crazy when they can’t dictate it to someone else.

So - if anyone out there is looking for a place to open an adult-oriented business, Hart County, KY has no zoning.

I use to drive from Cincinnati to the TheaterX. Had sone fun time there in the glory hole section. 

[Hotrawbutt4u]

20+ years ago the ABS, BH &Theaters were around and active. I noticed that the activity seemed to drop probably due to changing times. The internet, probably had a fair  amount to do with that. 

I use to go to one in Columbus, had great times and was always very active on a Friday night. I notice that the activity started dropping to the point you couldn't get anything there. It is another one that is gone.

I use to hit one in Dallas also, really had fun there, I heard it is also gone

[BootmanLA]

On 9/11/2022 at 8:41 PM, ErosWired said:

What tipped the scales, apparently, was two deaths that took place there this last week, cause not specified, I’m guessing drug-related.

The owners agreed to permanently close and sell the property with a deed restriction prohibiting any future sale of sexually-related materials on the premises.

This has been a long-time goal of the county powers-that-be, who have always seen the adult store as a nuisance they couldn’t legally do anything about. I suspect this closure was achieved by strong-arming the owners with the threat of legal liability over the deaths on the premises. They folded sudden quick, and I’m guessing it was to avoid a threat of charges, but that’s just speculation.

Assuming the speculation is true: let's pretend this was another type of business - say, a bar (also generally perfectly legal). Two people die because of drug overdoses in rooms that the bar owners allow individuals to close themselves off from anyone observing their behavior, where sex was going on and, if the speculation is true, drug use was also happening. I suspect such a bar would be shut down promptly as well.

I'm not denying that fundies can and do target sex-oriented businesses to shut them down. But I'm not sure that every such shutdown is, in fact, targeting that wouldn't be carried out against another type of business.

On 9/12/2022 at 2:38 PM, ErosWired said:

It was situated in the middle of an outlet mall, and back when it first moved in, all the other businesses made an exodus, not wanting to be associated with it. Ever since, it was the only business in the entire deserted outlet mall.

That may be playing into the closure as well. I have no idea how long they'd been leasing the space, but it's not uncommon for commercial leases to be long-term. For instance, one my family has on a piece of commercial property was originally leased to a company for 10 years with 3 5-year renewal options at their sole discretion (ie, if they wanted to stay, we had to extend the lease for 5 more years each time). When that 25 years was up, we signed another similar lease with the same company (though at higher rates and with rent escalation clauses), and as long as they want to keep leasing, they can (through the second 25-year period).

It's very possible that the owner of the building wanted to redevelop the site for something else, but they couldn't evict the tenant directly. But if the authorities can get the ABS to agree to shut down, they're likely to want out of the lease, and then the owner is free to redevelop.

On 9/12/2022 at 3:19 PM, austin_submale said:

We still have a bunch of adult orriented stores that sell videos and toys and lingere and stuff...  but most of them don't have booths at all and/or they are super restrictive about only one person to a booth and stuff like that which means they effectively don't have them.

The problem is that in many places - not sure if Austin (or Texas as a whole) is one of them - it's illegal to allow sexual activity on commercial property open to the public. If that's the case, allowing two or more people into video booths would be evidence that any sexual activity was being conducted with the tacit permission of the business - ergo bye bye business permit. Those rules are much more restrictive for places that sell alcohol, but there are often laws that apply in any commercial establishment.

10 hours ago, ErosWired said:

There are still two or three of those in the area - if you want to pay outrageously marked-up prices. None of them seem to have caught on to the fact that you can get it all on the internet cheaper, in greater variety, often at higher quality, in the privacy of your home, shipped discreetly. How they stay in business is beyond me. Having a place in the back where people can actually connect is the thing they can’t get shipped discreetly to their door.

One other thing that keeps them open is that you can buy it and take it with you and it does NOT show up at the door. Imagine Mr. John Smith, who works in a shop or office where he can't receive mail or packages, and Mrs. John Smith stays at home with the children and receives (and opens) all packages when they arrive. You can imagine this presents a problem for "discreet". For a single man, a gay couple, or a gay/bi man living with a roommate or two, that's not an issue, but I suspect bookstores that sell toys cater more to closeted, D/L men.

Separately, there's the "is this really what I want?" issue. When the toy is right there in your hands at the store you can get a good idea for firmness and for what "usable length: 8 inches" and "maximum circumference: 7 inches" really means (among other features that you can examine). 

[ejaculaTe]

I admit to a bit of confusion. If the ABS was in the middle of an outlet mall, what property interest did the store's owners have that could be sold? I'm assuming that the store owners only had a leasehold on the particular section of the mall the store occupied. As to who would have standing to enforce the restriction, I'm guessing that no one thought of that detail, especially if the transaction was hurried. If anyone did pause to consider the issue, they may have decided to keep the restriction as a means of scaring away anyone who thought of opening "Mall of Sex."

[BootmanLA]

9 minutes ago, ejaculaTe said:

I admit to a bit of confusion. If the ABS was in the middle of an outlet mall, what property interest did the store's owners have that could be sold? I'm assuming that the store owners only had a leasehold on the particular section of the mall the store occupied. As to who would have standing to enforce the restriction, I'm guessing that no one thought of that detail, especially if the transaction was hurried. If anyone did pause to consider the issue, they may have decided to keep the restriction as a means of scaring away anyone who thought of opening "Mall of Sex."

That would be my guess - the owners of the business and the owners of the real estate were probably two different entities.

It's possible, of course, that when the outlet mall emptied out, the sex store bought the property at a discount and just left it vacant except for their own business - in which case they'd have the right to impose the deed restriction before selling. But if, as you and I suspect, the property was owned by someone else, they were probably happy to get rid of a tenant that kept the property from being productive across the board, and were fine with imposing the deed restriction before its sale.