Many described Town, which opened on 8th Street NW near Florida Avenue in 2007 and spans more than 20,000 square feet across two floors, as a place to let loose after a draining day or week at work. Others said they found their eventual spouses and partners there. Some revealed that the club was among the first gay spaces they’d ever visited, the first place they’d made out with a stranger. The mourners were like a sprawling, extended family that had recently learned a loved one was terminally ill or moving far away.
Hundreds took to Facebook and Twitter to share memories of the times they’d spent bumping and grinding at the club, where drag shows, themed parties, and a hopping patio are mainstays in bustling Shaw. When Town Danceboutique, the District’s largest LGBTQ nightclub, announced on June 27 that it would be shutting its doors next summer after a decade in business, gay men across D.C.
