Pier 9 owed its success to the unconventional and multi-faceted experience owners Donald Culver and Bill Bickford created for patrons.
The Washington Star called the club “probably the best disco in town” while the Post declared unequivocally that the Pier 9 was “one of the best ongoing parties yet invented.” Such press coverage helped cement the club’s reputation as one of the most glamorous nightlife spots for both queer and heterosexual Washingtonians. For queer Washingtonians, in particular, Pier 9’s remote location protected them from the watchful and judgmental eyes of others. Mega discos were a new type of nightlife spot of unprecedented scale that could best be created in “airplane-hangar-sized” warehouses like the one at 1824 Half St, SW. However, the club debuted just as the District’s nightlife scene was being swept up by a new craze. The Pier 9’s gritty industrial setting might have made its success appear improbable initially. In 1970, the warehouse found an unexpected occupant in the Pier 9, a disco catering to gay men. Located near the confluence of the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers known as Buzzard Point, this building was surrounded by industrial buildings and sat directly across from the towering PEPCO power plant.
