Clarendon Days



Ahhh the 90s and Gay Rush Hour at Gold's Gym Clarendon..... the good ole days.....

Clarendon was the bomb back in the day. I joined in 1996 - at that time the gym was in a run-down area. It was a converted Safeway - two levels - the storage basement was the weights area and the sales floor above was cardio, machines, aerobics room and stretching area. Later they added in a Spin class room.

All the gay boys went to Clarendon. after the end of my First Big Gay Relationship™ in 1997, it was a great palce to be a single gay man. Runor had it that 7:30 p.m. on was the hetero meat market time. We all knew better... 4:00 pm to close was gay dating central.

I actually remember the first few pickups from Clarendon too.... not really quickies, but rather quick dates that went well followed by "Going all the way™". Good times, good times. It was easy too. A quick smile over in the arms section at the fella doing the preacher curls while you were standing and curling a barbell.... Just ask the guy working military press if you can work in with him and then pick any ole topic of conversation and go with it.

It got so gay that some gays stopped going.

Gold's totally blew up tho - they expanded like crazy - opening Bailey's Crossroads, south Glebe, and finally Ballston, the biggest Gold's in suburban VA. Ballston was meant to replace Clarendon.

And Clarendon went downhill. The locker rooms got moldy, the equipment stopped getting repaired. But still we came.

Back in the day I was in there early in the morning for cardio when they opened at 5, and back after work at 5 for weights. Both times were very very gay.

In 1998 they closed Clarendon for "1 week" to do some renovation. It finally re-opened like 3 weeks later with just new tile on the floor upstairs. This was the beginning of the end. Clarendon was starting to get hip - restaurants and bars and nightlife were coming, Whole Foods moved in and the empty building with the massive parking lot where we all parked for free to take the metro whenever we needed was fenced off....

Parking became a nightmare there too - it got so popular and crowded. Finally most of us split off, going to Rosslyn or Bailey's Crossroads.

I finally switched to Bailey's and then when S Glebe opened, there.

The empty space all around the Clarendon Gold's had begun to sprout mid-rise apartment/retail/condo/parking garage multi-use monster buildings. The notice appeared. Clarendon was to close - but never fear! It would be back in 2005!!

Finally, 2 weeks ago, Clarendon re-opened. It is a ghost of its former self.... small, sterile, Few weights, no aerobics room..... no free parking...... I doubt it can recapture its former glory. Ballston has all the glory now - the hetero meat market has moved in in full force. The gay meat market has moved to Results in DC, along with a small diaspora in the VIrginia suburbs Gold's.... Gay Gym Rush Hour still exists, tho those of us who work too damn much go too early in the morning to catch it's smaller, cruisier cousin.

Clarendon was an icon - a special place in time - maybe because of the time in my life - newly single gay man in his mid-20s... maybe because of what it was - a nice, though rough, big gym, well-equiped, in a meropolitan area crawling with gay men obsessed with their (and other's) bodies.

There will never be another.

Posted: Sat - August 12, 2006 at 06:39 PM          
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