This was one of the bars Jeffrey Dahmer frequented to find his victims. It opened February 1981 and closed October 2005. Club 219 became nationally infamous mid-1991 when it was revealed that this was the bar frequented by mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer, who met several men here who were subsequently found to be murdered by him.
This location, originally the site of two popular dance bars Gary’s and then Circus Circus, for a brief time there appears to have been no bar in this location. Then, in August 1980, a “teaser” ad appeared for “Trash” bar, without an address. The bar “Trash” advertised again in an October 1980 issue of Milwaukee Calendar, this time showing the “219 S. 2nd Street” address. But “Trash” appears to have had a slow start, and after just a few months, in January 1981, an ad “Trash it up at Club 219” appeared that essentially signaled a morphing into Club 219, and a major chapter in Milwaukee’s gay bar life began.
