Sun Tavern Marker

Mildred Berryman board members along with some of our amazing speakers and political representatives from the Sun Tavern marker reveal in OCtober 2026, including state senator Jen Plumb, city council members Chris Wharton and Ale Puy, and bartender from the original Sun Tavern, Nikki Boyer.

We are extremely proud to announce that in a brand new pilot program, the Salt Lake Human Rights Commission and the Mayor’s Office of Access and Belonging selected a proposal made by the Mildred Berryman Institute to install a historical marker near the site of the original Sun Tavern gay bar at the corner of North Temple and 400 W – now the northwest corner of the Delta Center plaza!

Special thank you to Kiawna for taking photos for us during the unveiling

Opened by Joe Redburn in 1973, the Sun Tavern quickly became more than a neighborhood bar. It served as an important gathering place and de facto community center for Salt Lake City’s Gay community, providing a space where people could meet, build friendships, organize, and find community at a time when openly LGBTQ+ spaces were limited. Redburn also helped organize Utah’s first public Gay and Lesbian event in 1974, laying important groundwork for the Pride celebrations and LGBTQ+ activism that followed.

In September, we did a small unveiling with city officials and in a perfect campy happenstance discovered someone left an empty pack of cigarettes on the marker already. We felt this was the perfect way to remember Sun Tavern owner Joe Redburn and his legacy of having a good time and fighting for community. At a later community unveiling on October 4, 2026, there was an empty Coors beer bottle waiting for us. We added it to our altar of offerings to remember Joe Redburn and the many nights of partying at the Sun.

Thank you to everyone who came to this event and spoke about your memories at the Sun.

We were also extremely honored to be part of this pilot program with our besties at Sema Hadithi African American Heritage and Culture Foundation, who also erected a marker at the site of the lynching of Black Utahn, Thomas Coleman.

Sema Hadithi representatives with the marker dedicated to Thomas Coleman.