Sportsman's Blue Note, aka Sportsman's Ninth Inning, was a pre-Stonewall men's bar After buying the old Benz family tavern in 1960, John T. Williams renamed it to honor Chicago's recently-closed Blue Note Jazz Club (3 N. Clark.) In July 1962, MPD light meters recorded a zero score at the Blue Note. (Mid-century gay bars offered low lighting to shield closested customers from recognition.) The Blue Note achieved local success, but urban renewal, freeway construction, street crime, and a suspicious fire eventually led to closure. The property was razed in 1964 and has been vacant ever since.