November 18, 2025 | Michail Takach

Vicky Hasko: carving out Wausau’s first space for queer celebration

Only four years after Stonewall, she created a regional destination, meaningful community memories, and a historic landmark for northern Wisconsin.

Vicky Hasko

“It feels so weird to see First and Scott now.”

As it should. From 1973 to 1982, Vicky Hasko ran Wausau’s first out gay bar at the height of gay liberation. The Pit, located in the basement of the Hotel Central (100-104 Scott Street,) became a regional destination. After nearly a decade, Vicky left the Gay Rights State for the Wild West, and The Pit officially became Wisconsin LGBTQ history.

The Hotel Central was demolished in 1989 after two devastating fires. Today, First and Scott is a vacant city block that tells no tales of the misadventures that once happened there.

Vicky was born and raised in Wausau. Now retired, she is proud to call it her hometown again today.

Vicky Hasko

Inside the Pit

The Pit t-shirt, in full color

“I always knew I was different, but I was fortunate because people accepted me,” said Vicky. “My parents always taught us; you can do whatever you want to do. Just be the best person you can be. They allowed my siblings and I to learn, grow, and be our person. It was a lovely thing.”

After running a bar in Mosinee, Wisconsin, John and Jean Hasko leased out the Hotel Central bar, including the fixtures and equipment. Jeanie’s Bar was very, very popular throughout the 1960s. While running the tavern, they also raised six children – two boys and four girls.

As a WWII veteran and paraplegic, John eventually had a harder and harder time to get up and down the stairs. By 1969, he was ready to retire. The Haskos leased the tavern to a new operator, Corrine Bruehling. But after three years, Corrine wanted out.

And Vicky had the opportunity of a lifetime.

“When I was 18, my parents asked my brother and I to take over the lease,” said Vicky. “They thought we’d do OK. I went and got a license and the next thing I knew I was running a bar.”

Vicky ran The Pit for the next nine years.

“I knew a lot of people in Wausau,” said Vicky. “I was born here, raised here, and went to three different high schools here. And everything started coming down to The Pit. Well, I was gay, so of course a lot of my friends were gay. Over time, the Pit went from straight to mixed to gay.”

“It was a pretty wild little bar.”

Even the story of the bar’s name is wild. When she took over the bar, Vicky was also driving a dump truck hauling granite and asphalt for a local quarry. She kept this job for years after the bar opened.

“As a driver, I used to go down to the quarry pit to get the truck loaded,” said Vicky, “and that’s how the name happened. ‘I’m going to call it The Pit. We’re in the basement. And if you come down here, you can get loaded too!”

The Pit was a very cozy space: only 550 square feet, with 12 bar stools, a picnic table, a jukebox, and a pinball machine.

“We just packed that place,” said Vicky. “People would fill the stairwell because they couldn’t get downstairs. It was that crowded! They’d pass money through the crowd to the bar, and people would order and pass them drinks back through the crowd. You’d never see anything like that today.”

“The police finally came down in the late 70s and asked us what our capacity was,” said Vicky. “We’d never really thought about it. There was no other place anywhere around here. We were it – and we were trying to serve as many people as we could.”

Word was out – fortunately for some, and unfortunately for others.

“It started getting a little weird,” said Vicky. “We got crank calls. We had our windows kicked in. Someone damaged our sign out front. We got invaded a few times, where guys would come in and wreck stuff, and we’d have to call the cops to chase them out. We had street preachers out on the corner every once in a while. We had a few troublemakers from the halfway house upstairs.”

One afternoon, a resident came downstairs and ordered two beers. She noticed that he was mumbling quietly to himself throughout the visit.

But during a quiet moment, Vicky heard him loud and clear, when he said (to the empty barstool next to him) “what’s the matter? Aren’t you going to drink that?”

“I had to ask him to leave,” said Vicky, “mostly out of concern for his safety and ours. Some of the people upstairs were really struggling, and it wasn’t good for them to be in a tavern.”

At the same time, some city officials didn’t think it was good for The Pit to be in Wausau.

“I don’t think the city fathers were really thrilled with us. We got a little police harassment here, a little police intimidation there. They’d set up police cars near the bar. They would follow people, stop them, check them for operating while intoxicated, and search them for drugs."

"It wasn’t the whole police force, just a few guys who got real upset about gay people for some reason. I was friends with quite a few cops, some going back to grade school. Over time, they mellowed out.”

“It was the 70s. This was just the crap we had to put up with.”

There were other, more secretive gay bars – or at least bars where gay people gathered – operating in Wausau. They weren’t entirely friendly to strangers, but then again, they really couldn’t be.

“I heard about this basement bar over on 6^th Street, so I went over to check it out,” said Vicky.

“I can’t even remember the name of it. I don’t even know if the building is still there. The bartender was my mother’s age and so were all the customers. I walked in, ordered a drink, and the lady gave me a look. A few minutes later, she told me to finish my drink and never come back. She said, ‘you’re going to attract tension down here, and I don’t need that.’”

“I thought I was being a good neighbor and supporting another local bar,” said Vicky, “and she saw me as a threat to her business. She was just protecting her customers, I get it. They were from a very different time than I was. I never went back. And I never heard about that bar again. Sometimes I wonder whatever happened to it."

The Pit became Wausau’s first out gay bar, and soon, others followed.

Debbie McCarthy became co-owner of The Lark, a country-western bar long owned by the Charbonneau family and changed it over to a more mixed crowd, but it had a queer reputation long before that. Later, The Lark was the first place in Wausau to host drag shows.

That experience really stuck in Vicky’s mind.

Over the next few years, she worked hard to create a super close-knit, welcoming community at The Pit. They hosted pool leagues, women’s softball teams (“the guys didn’t want to do it – even though there were way more guys at The Pit than girls!”) and special events. Farmers came in from the countryside on the weekends, alongside college students visiting from Madison and Stevens Point. They’d get road trippers down from the UP and summer tourists up from Illinois.

“Being gay wasn’t open, especially upnorth. It was frowned upon. Most straight people thought something was wrong with you. They might not say anything, but you knew they thought it. We wanted to create a place where none of that mattered, where you could just be you.”

Along the way, The Pit became a great big family – and Vicky’s own family was usually part of the festivities.

“Back then, Wausau was the kind of town where everyone knew everyone, and if you didn’t know someone, they definitely knew your parents or your grandparents,” said Vicky.

“We weren’t in the closet. We were very open with each other. Things were tight. Just being with our own people was so, so great. It was the joy of seeing gay people every week, and them bringing new gay people in to see us. They’d come from places where they weren’t accepted, and we made sure they found acceptance here. They’d stay out all night and wind up at the 24-hour diner afterwards. We sure had fun!”

“The best holiday of the year was Halloween,” said Vicky. “The guys could be girls, and the girls could be guys. Everybody dressed however they felt without any fear of flack. Halloween was HUGE at the Pit.”

After nine years, Vicky was ready for a change. She’d never expected to stay that long, but she doesn’t regret that she did. After all, time flies when you’re having fun. She sold The Pit in late 1982 and moved to Colorado.

Jim Christiansen reopened the bar in January 1983 as The Pendulum, a spiritual sequel to The Pit. He was hoping to keep the crowds, but the business sold again within a few years.

“Two young guys bought the bar and moved it upstairs,” said Vicky. “And that sure killed the Pit and the Pendulum vibes!”

Suffering devastating fires in 1986 and 1989, the Hotel Central was eventually razed. The surface lot -- which has grown even bigger over time -- is used for parking.

After moving to Las Vegas, Vicky worked in Caesar’s Group casinos for over 32 years, including MGM, Bally’s, Paris, and Planet Hollywood. She started as a slot technician and later served as casino manager.

“I watched a guy working on a slot machine, and said, hey, I can do that,” said Vicky. “It was like, ok, so where’s the school?”

The Pit advertising, 1973

The Hotel Central, 1981

The Hotel Central after the fire, 1989

“Vegas was always changing,” said Vicky, “and it’s changing again right now. Living there was never a dull moment.”

After retiring, Vicky and Juliette returned to Wausau to be near family. Throughout their 38 years together, they visited Wausau many times, but now they’re here to stay.

“It’s wonderful to spend time with family after all these years,” said Vicky. “One week a year just doesn’t cut it.”

She believes Wausau – and Wisconsin – have grown much open since she left, although Wausau still feels a little bit quaint. But she’s glad to see that her hometown still has a gay bar – over 50 years after the Pit opened.

“Everyone still needs a place to go,” said Vicky. “A place to watch Packer games, drown your sorrows, have your celebrations, be with your people. That’s still needed. You hear that the world doesn’t need gay bars anymore. Well, I believe the world still needs places where gay people can just be themselves, together, in their own space.”

And The Pit sure still has a special place in Wausau’s heart.

“That Wausau Facebook group, man, there’s just so much love,” said Vicky. “It’s so cool to see the huge impression our tiny little bar made on people. Someone posted pictures of our Pit T-shirts, another posted a photo of our outdoor sign, people are reconnecting with friends they met at The Pit half a lifetime ago. I am seriously so grateful to be remembered so nicely. It was wonderful getting to know those people, and I hope to run into more of them now that I’m back.”

“Sometimes I’ll see people post about The Pit,” said Vicky, “and some youngster will comment, ‘No way! WAUSAU had a gay bar way back then?’”

“And I just laugh, thinking, oh… WE SURE DID.”