Memories of murals outside departed Montrose gay bar Mary's still live on

From 1990 until 1999 artist Scott Swoveland's colorful murals outside Montrose gay bar Mary's at 1022 Westheimer showed off the neighborhood's vibrant reputation as an LGBT redoubt.

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The bar had to install Plexiglas windows, having been a target of vandals over the years. After its 1972 opening, the bar went through various ups and downs, closing for good in 2009 due to unpaid rent.

Bar worker Swoveland was responsible for a famous mural on the bar’s east side, a depiction of a classic night at the bar, full of guys in leather and Levi’s jeans. It likely scared some who came into the neighborhood, not fully aware of the scene depicted.

All of Swoveland's campy murals were done with chalk-based tempura paint, easily removed with water to start all over again. They only took about eight hours to install, during which, he told Outsmart magazine, he was usually the brunt of homophobic slurs and other abuse.

All told, he would paint hundreds of designs outside the bar over the years.

Free Press Houston’s Alex Wukman wrote an extensive piece on the bar back in 2011 while the building was lying dormant, with Outsmart following up later that year with a story of its own.

The mural returned briefly in 2011 to coincide with Pride Houston festivities but it was removed months later by city order. Swoveland explained who was who in the mural in that Outsmart piece.

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After an extensive renovation,  Mary's was reborn as the coffeehouse/cafe Blacksmith in early 2013.

People who have just moved to the city probably don't even know about the building's colorful past as a cultural anchor, or that some former patrons’ ashes (mostly casualties of the AIDS epidemic) were spread or buried where the backyard garden – dubbed The Outback -- once was. These days that garden makes up part of the parking lot for nearby foodie hotspots.

Some wanted it to be saved as an historic landmark due to its local relevance but progress won out.

J.D. Doyle with the website Houston LGBT History has kindly allowed the Houston Chronicle to publish photos of Swoveland’s handiwork outside Mary’s.

Craig Hlavaty is a reporter for Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com.