From the brothels of post-Civil War-era St. Louis to the streets of New Orleans' Storyville, this episode traces the history of prostitution along the Mississippi River — and the endless tug-of-war between tolerance, regulation, and suppression that has defined it.
We start with Eliza Haycraft, a remarkable St. Louis woman who arrived penniless by canoe in 1840 and built a fortune running brothels, becoming one of the city's most generous philanthropists — and one of its most socially shunned residents. Her story opens a window into how 19th-century river towns grappled with an industry that was everywhere and officially nowhere.
The episode moves through St. Louis's short-lived Social Evil Ordinance of the 1870s — a bold experiment in regulated prostitution that sparked fierce debate, drew powerful opponents like Washington University co-founder William Greenleaf Eliot, and ultimately collapsed under the weight of corruption and public backlash. Then it's downriver to New Orleans, where Storyville's cleverly worded 1897 ordinance created a ten-block entertainment district that boomed for 20 years before the federal government forced it shut in 1917.
We also stop in La Crosse, Wisconsin and Winona, Minnesota, where local officials spent decades cycling through raids, crackdowns, quiet reopenings, and willful blindness. Throughout it all, one theme keeps surfacing: no matter what officials decided, the industry simply adapted and carried on.
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Dean Klinkenberg (00:00):
Red-light districts developed along the
(00:01):
Mississippi from New Orleans toMinneapolis, and authorities in
those Mississippi river towns,like their counterparts in other
communities and times, havetried many ways to tolerate,
regulate or suppressprostitution.
(00:37):
Welcome to the MississippiValley Traveler podcast. I'm
Dean Klinkenberg, and I've beenexploring the deep history and
rich culture of the people andplaces along America's greatest
river, the Mississippi, since2007. Join me as I go deep into
the characters and places alongthe river, and occasionally
wander into other stories fromthe Midwest and other rivers.
(00:58):
Read the episode show notes andget more information on the
Mississippi atMississippiValleyTraveler.com.
Let's get going.
Welcome to Episode 73 of theMississippi Valley Traveler
podcast. Well, fair warning, ifyou are accustomed to listening
to these episodes with yourchildren, with your minor
(01:20):
children, you might want to sendthem out in the yard to play, or
maybe suggest they skip thisepisode, because it'll just bore
them anyway. Because in thisepisode, we're going to take a
look at the underbelly of lifein many river towns. We're going
to take a look at the history ofprostitution and brothels in
many communities along theMississippi. Specifically, I'm
(01:42):
going to tell you some storiesabout attempts to legalize and
regulate or control prostitutionin river towns, including New
Orleans, St Louis, La Crosse,Wisconsin, and Winona,
Minnesota. Each of these hassome interesting stories to
tell, and they may surprise youwith how many have tried to
regulate or effectively legalizeprostitution in their
(02:07):
communities. This is based on achapter I wrote for a book
called "Mississippi RiverMayhem." That book is still
available everywhere books aresold. If you want to read it and
and read all about disasters andcrimes and tragedies along the
Mississippi River. But in thisepisode, we're going to zero in
on the issue of prostitution. Asalways, you can find photos and
(02:28):
show notes at Mississippi ValleyTraveler.com/podcast, and there
you will find links to allprevious 72 episodes so you can
binge them or listen to them atyour leisure.
Thanks to all of you whocontinue to show me some love
through Patreon. Your supportmeans the world to me, and it
sustains this podcast. It keepsit going. If Patreon is not your
(02:51):
thing, then, well, you can buyme a coffee. You can go to
MississippiValleyTraveler.com/podcast,and from that website, from that
page, you can buy me a coffee.
Buy me a couple of coffees. Idrink it every day. I'd
appreciate you helping tosustain my caffeine habit, as
well as this podcast. If youwant to join the Patreon
community, go topatreon.com/deanklinkenberg, and
(03:11):
you'll get early access toepisodes for as little as $1 a
month. And now on with theepisode
(03:32):
When Eliza Haycraft died in1871, St. Louisans turned out by
the thousands for her funeralprocession. She'd been a
generous philanthropist in thecity, building a fortune from
scratch and using her money tohelp black and white St.Louisans
who were down on their luck. Sheleft an estate valued at a
quarter of a million dollars, orthe equivalent of several
(03:52):
million dollars today. Butdespite her wealth and charity,
the city elites shunned her.
The Methodist church shebelonged to, wouldn't host her
funeral, so the service was heldat her home, the large house
she'd purchased from theChouteau family, descendants of
the city's founders. When sheasked to buy a burial plot in
the well-tended necropolis thatis Bellefontaine Cemetery, she
(04:14):
was initially turned away.
Bellefontaine Cemeteryeventually agreed to sell her a
plot, but she reputedly had toagree to a burial with no
marker. Haycraft may have beenwealthy and generous, but the
respectable classes turned theirbacks on her because of how she
had earned her fortune. Haycrafthad run houses of prostitution.
(04:36):
When Haycraft was 20 years old,her parents kicked her out after
they discovered that she, anunmarried woman, had been
sexually active. She got out oftown by canoeing down the
Missouri River from CallawayCounty to St Louis, where she
settled into the new city. Shehad no money or possessions of
value, just the a few clotheswith her. In 1840 a single woman
(04:59):
like Haycraft had few ways tomake money legitimately,
especially if they wereilliterate like she was. So she
took one of the few jobsavailable to her. She got hired
by a brothel to work as aprostitute. She eventually
worked her way up to running theplace, and oversaw a steady
increase in business during aperiod of time when the city's
population grew exponentially.
In the 30 years she lived in StLouis, the population exploded
(05:24):
from 36,000 to 350,000. Many ofthose new residents were single
men looking for companionship,and they had money to spend. By
the end of the Civil War, sheowned five brothels.
She invested her profits in realestate around the city and
donated money generously topeople in need. After she died,
(05:47):
most of her estate was dividedamong her surviving family
members. Two of her sisters got$100 each, but her other four
sisters equally split the restof her estate. One of the
stipulations in her will (05:58):
none of her sister's husbands could
touch any of the inheritedmoney.
Few women of that era achievedHaycraft's level of financial
success. But prostitution wasn'tan unusual occupation for that
time period, and the brothels inMississippi River towns boomed
just as much as brothels asbrothels in other parts of the
(06:19):
country. Red light districtsdeveloped along the Mississippi
from New Orleans to Minneapolis,and authorities in those
Mississippi River towns, liketheir counterparts in other
communities and times, havetried many ways to tolerate,
regulate or suppressprostitution. At the start of
World War I, the US, Navy andArmy banned prostitution within
(06:41):
five miles of military baseswhich forced a closure of famous
red light districts in placessuch as Bucktown in Davenport,
Iowa and Storyville in NewOrleans. Still, in spite of the
bans and attempts at regulation,people continued to find ways to
buy and sell sex. Prostitutionhas been as much part of St
(07:02):
Louis history as steamboatlandings and brick construction.
In the 19th century, men whowanted to buy sex had a couple
of options. They could go to abrothel and choose from among
the women who lived there, orthey could hire a more
independent professional womanand rent a room at a hotel that
specialized in accommodatingsuch assignations. Both types of
(07:24):
places ranged in quality, fromhigh-class palaces catering to
refined tastes to lowbrowestablishments concerned only
with turning over rooms asquickly as possible. In St
Louis, brothels concentratednear the riverfront in the
blocks of Poplar, Christy, andMorgan streets.
Women were arrested frequently,their male their male customers,
(07:46):
rarely so. But most arrestsresulted only in a small fine.
On some occasions, though, thepenalty could be quite harsh.
Mary Ann Frost, for example, wasconvicted of running a brothel
in January 1870 and fined$1,000. When she couldn't pay,
the judge threw her in jail andtook her eight year old son away
from her, placing him into thecustody of a city institution.
(08:10):
In the latter half of the 19thcentury, reformers in the United
States, inspired by emergingtrends in Europe, pushed the
city to register and regulateprostitution. As they did so
anti-prostitution activistscountered their efforts to
maintain legal sanctions againstprostitution, calling it
inherently immoral and a threatto families. While both sides
(08:32):
recognize the public healththreat of sexually transmitted
diseases spread throughprostitution, they didn't agree
on ways to reduce the risks.
Reformers got an opening in 1870when the state of Missouri
passed a revised charter for thecity of St Louis. The new
charter included a provisionallowing the city to regulate so
called bawdy and disorderlyhouses, houses of ill fame or
(08:52):
assignation. Shortly after that,St Louis passed the show the
Social Evil Ordinance, a measurethat created a framework for
legalized prostitution. Underthe new law, working women
registered with the city andpaid a fee and had to pass
regular health exams. When awoman failed the health exam,
(09:12):
she was sent to a hospital,where she had to stay until she
was cured. The city used some ofthe revenue generated by the
fees to build a hospital at theedge of town that treated
prostitutes. They named it theSocial Evil Hospital. Under this
new law, police could close anybrothel or order it to relocate
to another part of town. No newbrothels could open without
(09:33):
permission from the board ofpolice commissioners. The new
law also banned women fromopenly soliciting their
services, whether on a citystreet or in the window of a
brothel. Over 700 womenregistered in the first few
months, as did nearly 100brothels. Six medical examiners
performed exams on registeredprostitutes every single week.
(09:54):
The new system reduced, butdidn't stop arrests of
prostitutes. Police sometimescharge women with public
drunkenness, vagrancy, usingprofane language or disturbing
the peace instead of sexoffenses. Still, the law
probably increased thevisibility of prostitutes and
may have given the profession anew sense of legitimacy. Both of
(10:15):
those outcomes displeased manypeople. When leadership proposed
a new city charter in 1872, itincluded a provision to make
legalization permanent.
Opponents organized to stop it.
One of them was WilliamGreenleaf Eliot, a Unitarian
minister and one of the foundersof prestigious Washington
(10:37):
University. His allies includedreligious and women's groups,
many of whom had been vocalabolitionists before the Civil
War. Eliot began a relentlesspublic campaign against the
Social Evil Ordinance thatincluded writing frequent
editorials for local papers. In1873, for example, he wrote,
"consider what it is that we aredoing. We register their houses
(10:59):
at a stipulated price. We entertheir names on the city record.
We cause them to be inspectedevery week by physicians. We
take payment for this from thewages of sin. Can Christian
women who respect their own sexquietly look on while their
sisters for whom Christ died areby law recognized and upheld in
(11:21):
a pollution so deep?"Opponents attacked the law from
multiple angles. Families mightsuffer from diseases because of
a husband's misdeeds. Husbandscould stray without facing
consequences. The law fostered,quote, "a class of women who are
to be permanently held as theinstruments of the legalized
(11:42):
lust of habitually profligatemen," Eliot wrote.
These tactics failed to changethe law, though, as did
challenges to the law'sconstitutionality. Eventually,
though, support for legalizationwaned as the social evil law
appeared to undermineenforcement of other city
ordinances aimed at keepingundesirable people under
(12:05):
control. The city, for example,had a vagrancy law that gave it
wide discretion to arrest peoplewho associated with lawbreakers.
But because prostitution waslegal, one court ruled that the
vagrancy law could not be usedto punish people merely for
associating with prostitutes.
This frustrated some in lawenforcement and in the rest of
the community. By 1874 thepublic had finally turned
(12:28):
against the law. As stories ofabuse and corruption rose to the
surface some police officerswere accused of using the law as
a pretext to harass respectablewomen. There were rumors of
inappropriate behaviors by themedical examiners, and in the
middle of all this, a corruptionscandal embroiled the city
administration. While thescandal was unrelated to legal
(12:49):
prostitution, it underminedpublic confidence in city
government. Newspapers sensedthe swing in public opinion
against legal prostitution andjumped on the bandwagon,
editorializing for repeal oflegalization. In March, 1874 the
state of Missouri did what thecity hadn't yet done, and
repealed the city's authority toregulate prostitution. They also
(13:11):
passed a companion bill thatbanned police raids of brothels,
except under very limitedcircumstances, which was an
attempt to prevent retributionagainst the women who had
already registered under theThe legislature once again
relegated prostitution to thelaw.
underbelly of society, returningto the past by encouraging
(13:32):
officials to look the other wayin exchange for certain favors
and for token criminalization ofpaying for or selling sex.
Twenty years later, a thousandmiles downriver, New Orleans
began its own experiment withmanaging prostitution, even if
they never quite called itlegalization. In 1897 the city
(13:53):
passed ordinance number 13,032.
In a crafty move, thelegislation defined
neighborhoods where prostitutionwas not legal, which was
everywhere in New Orleans,except for the 10 square blocks
just north of the Frenchcorridor specified in the bill.
City officials had been tryingfor years to reduce the negative
impact of prostitution, butcourts had thrown out every
(14:15):
previous law that had legalizedit. In 1897 city officials took
a different approach and passeda carefully worded ordinance
that never indicatedprostitution was actually legal
in any part of the city, justparts of the city where it was
explicitly prohibited. Itworked. The courts ultimately
upheld the law determining thatit regulated prostitution rather
(14:38):
than legalizing it.
The main sponsor of thelegislation was Alderman Sidney
Story and in spite of hisefforts to name the area of the
district, folks started callingit Storyville, and the name
stuck. He wasn't flattered.
Storyville offered options fornearly every taste and budget
(14:59):
and visitors could consult theBlue Book or similar guides to
help them plan their activities.
In one edition, the Blue Booklays out the advantages of New
Orleans Storyville (15:06):
'Because it is the only district of its kind
in the state set aside for thefast women by law, because it
puts the stranger on a properand safe path as to where he may
go and be free from hold ups andother games usually practiced
upon the stranger. It regulatesthe women so that they may live
in one district to themselves,instead of being scattered over
(15:29):
the city and filling ourthoroughfares with
streetwalkers.'The Blue Book listed women by
name and race with an addresswhere they may be found, as well
as identifying theestablishments where they
worked, places such as CountessPiazzas, the New Manhattan
Cabaret and The Club.
Advertisers in the Blue Bookincluded taverns, distilleries,
(15:53):
breweries, including Anheuser,Busch, cigar manufacturers,
glassware, taxis, pharmacies,lawyers. Pretty much every
service one would need whenvisiting Storyville. White and
Black women rarely worked in thesame brothel, although those
segregated brothels were oftenright next to each other, while
(16:15):
white men had free rein to roamaround the neighborhood, black
men were not allowed to visitthe brothels at all. A separate
area later developed for blackmen who were looking for a
brothel, although that areaexisted in legal limbo. In
Storyville, brothels ran thegamut from lavish mansions along
Basin Street to "cribs" or rundown rooms and other parts of
(16:38):
Storyville.
The Jazz Age hadn't yet begun,but Storyville bustled with
music and dance halls. Thehigher end brothels employed
their own musicians, typicallypiano players. Tony Jackson was
widely admired as one of thebest, but Jelly Roll Morton also
played in brothels. Morton, whooften took credit for inventing
jazz (many disagree), at leastgets the credit for publishing
(17:01):
the first jazz composition insheet music form. He credited
his time in Storyville forproviding a lot of the
inspiration for his later jazztunes. If you visited the club,
you might hear blues or ragtime,but dance music really dominated
the clubs.
King Oliver led one of thebetter known bands in
Stroyville, which is where hemet and took under his tutelage
(17:24):
a young cornetist named LouisArmstrong. Over time, the
neighborhood transformed from anindustrial and residential area
characterized by wood row housesand colonnaded frame homes large
and small, to an entertainmentzone with landlords that
included Tulane University andthe Archdiocese of New Orleans.
(17:44):
The area's largely Black,working class residents were
gradually displaced by risingrents as taverns, brothels and
dance halls grew more abundant.
Storyville's end came in 1917when the federal government
pressured cities to shut downprostitution near its military
bases.
Secretary of War, Newton Bakerproclaimed, "These boys are
(18:06):
going to France. I want themadequately armed and clothed by
their government, but I wantthem to have an invisible armor
to take with them, a moral andintellectual armor for their
protection overseas." Cityofficials tried to resist the
federal pressure. Mayor MartinBehrman responded, you can make
it illegal, but you can't makeit unpopular. Ultimately, the
(18:28):
city gave in, though they reallyhad no choice. Mayor Martin
Behrman ordered all brothelsclosed by November 12, 1917.
Prostitution didn't end, ofcourse, it just slipped
underground into houses andbuildings throughout the city,
including some inside Storyvilleitself.
Hey, Dean Klinkenberg here,interrupting myself. Just
(18:52):
wanted to remind you that ifyou'd like to know more about
the Mississippi River, check outmy books. I write the
Mississippi Valley Travelerguidebooks for people who want
to get to know the Mississippibetter. I also write the Frank
Dodge mystery series that is setin places along the Mississippi.
My newest book, The WildMississippi, goes deep into the
(19:12):
world of Old Man River. Learnabout the varied and complex
ecosystem supported by theMississippi, the plant and
animal life that depends onthem, and where you can go to
experience it all. Find any ofthese wherever books are sold.
Other cities along theMississippi, including La
Crosse, Wisconsin, rarelywavered from a look the other
(19:33):
way approach. In La Crosse,prostitution had a long history.
In 1876 just 20 years after thecity incorporated, police
arrested Kate Champion forrunning a brothel. Neighbors
tattled on her which led to apolice officer gathering
evidence by standing outside awindow of her house to observe a
rendezvous in progress. Championwas convicted and sentenced to
(19:55):
six months of hard labor at theWisconsin State Prison in Waupun
in.
On September 22 1897 policearrested Carrie Scott in Olson's
Saloon while she was sitting atthe bar and talking to a man.
They weren't doing anythingunseemly, just talking, but
Lacrosse, like other cities atthe time, enforced an ordinance
(20:15):
that banned women from being ina bar unless their husbands or
fathers accompanied them. Apolice officer had seen Scott
chatting up men on the streetand following a couple of them
into a saloon. That was enoughto prompt the arrest. She was
fined 20 bucks and ordered topay another $24 in court costs.
(20:35):
The Mississippi House was apretty rough place. Basically a
low cost motel near the riverthat connected rivermen, their
primary customers, with womenwho could supply temporary
company. The Mississippi Housedid a steady business for over
30 years in the latter half ofthe 19th century, changing
locations a few times, butalways taking close to the
(20:55):
river. La Crosse officials let ared light district operate in
the 100 block of Pearl Streetfor several years, but in 1908
Mayor Wendell Anderson orderedthe brothels closed.
The policy change wasn'tuniversally embraced. Many
police officers preferred tokeep the district open because
the regulars often passed alongtips to the police about
(21:17):
suspicious new characters intown. In a previous term as
mayor, Anderson had left thedistrict alone, but he changed
his mind, because each brothelstayed open by paying a $50 fine
every quarter. For Anderson,that seemed like a licensing
fee. Anderson worried such anarrangement suggested that the
city was profiting fromprostitution, and he didn't like
(21:39):
that. He was also uncomfortablewith the fact that police didn't
permit women in the brothels towalk the streets together, or
that the women had to be back intheir houses by six in the
evening. Women who didn't livein brothels did not have to live
with any of those restrictions.
The 1908 closure didn't last,though. The next mayor Ori
Sorensen reopened the districtin 1909. He believed it was
(22:01):
better to keep the brothelsoperating openly as long as they
were restricted to a specificpart of the city. He worried
that tighter restrictions wouldjust drive prostitution
underground and make it harderto monitor. The roller coaster
ride continued from there.
Sorensen lost re election, andhis replacement, John Denger,
(22:23):
closed the district again. WhenSorensen campaigned to get his
old job back in 1913 he changedhis position and pledged to keep
the brothels closed. "During myfirst administration," he said,
"I was of the opinion that thetenderloin was a necessary
evil." He believed that a forcedclosure would just scatter the
(22:44):
problem around the city. Butafter careful study, he found
that conditions, "have grownbetter instead of worse since
the resort keepers and inmateswere driven out." The women who
worked in the brothels weresometimes called inmates.
He won in 1913 and he did notlet the brothels open again.
(23:04):
Sorensen's return to officecoincided with an investigation
into prostitution led byWisconsin state senator Howard
Teasdale. In the spring of 1913,Teasdale convened a committee to
take a hard look at, "Whiteslave traffic and kindred
subjects." Investigatorstraveled around the state
determined to expose thewidespread damage prostitution
(23:26):
caused in La Crosse. Theinvestigators found a high
concentration of brothels alongThird Street between Pearl and
State Streets. The report notedthat in many of those
establishments, a man could hirea prostitute for $2 or rent a
room for $1 and bring his owncompanion. Most of the women
were in their 20s, but some wereconsiderably older. One
(23:47):
investigator visited a tavern onFrench island north of the city,
and observed, "As soon as a manenters, these women take him by
the arm and lead him to the barand keep him there as long as he
will treat them..the worst sortof dancing, ragging and tango
are allowed."The committee's final report
accused the La Crosse PoliceDepartment of enabling
(24:08):
prostitution. "There are 21members of the department, all
included except the chief. Manyof them are bad, hand in glove
with vice and on the mostintimate terms with sporting
girls. Prominent among them isOfficer Wermuth, a brother of a
saloon keeper of the same nameon North Third Street. It is
common talk among the girls, andgenerally talked about town that
(24:32):
after closing hours of thesaloon, this officer having a
key to the rear entrance of theWet Goods Saloon takes girls in
there spending considerable timewith them. Viola Friday or
Atchison, a well knownprostitute, boasts of his
friendship with her, and otherssay. Sophie Zak, a young Polish
girl, was also his paramour."The committee recommended
(24:58):
several changes to existing lawsto reduce prostitution,
including banning women fromsaloons and eliminating back and
side entrances. Mayor Sorensenand Police Captain Lawrence
Dugan expressed support forthose ideas. The committee also
recommended raising the age ofconsent from 14 to 18, if you
can believe the age of consentwas 14 at the time the committee
(25:20):
wrote, 'We must take intoconsideration that no possession
of a woman is of as much valueto her as her honor. Yet
existing laws permit her toyield this in childhood, at a
period when in her innocence andlack of knowledge, she does not
comprehend what she is doing,nor the frightful consequences
(25:40):
of her act, thus permitting herto sacrifice that which is of
far more value to her than herproperty." Mostly, though
nothing changed after thecommittee's work.
In 1925 Anna Bennett, betterknown as Ma, opened the European
Hotel on Second Street. "Ma'swas a classy place. She wouldn't
(26:03):
let any bums in," ecalled ananonymous former customer. For
20 years, a steady stream ofmen, top business managers and
city officials included,patronized the brothel, entering
through the back door forprivacy. "Those places were just
another incidental spot where aguy went," said another former
customer. From the outside, thebuilding was nothing special,
(26:25):
just a two story brick structurewith few architectural frills
inside, though it looked like apalace, an elegant chandelier
hung in the front room,tapestries draped on the walls,
ritzy carpeting covered thefloors. The brothel even had a
nickelodeon for musicalentertainment. Ma's operated in
the heart of prohibition, butthat didn't slow down her
(26:48):
operation. She could buy a caseof beer for three bucks, but she
charged men $1 a beer for asingle bottle. Prices didn't
drop when prohibition ended, bythe way. As for the primary
services Ma's offered, men paida base rate of $2 and Ma kept
half of that. Most girls,though, charged about $5 for
(27:08):
their services. The women workedin one of the seven upstairs
rooms. Ma employed up to 20women at a time, most of them
between 18 and 25 years old, alldressed immaculately. Eight of
the women lived in the EuropeanHotel, the rest in apartments
nearby. Most didn't stay long,maybe three months at the most.
(27:30):
"Ma was on a pipeline," a friendof Ma Bennett remembered.
"Whenever she needed a new girl,all she'd have to do was make a
call to New York, Chicago,Cleveland or Minneapolis. They'd
send her a picture of the girl.
She never turned one down."Many people in town didn't seem
to mind the presence of thebrothel. "If I had a teenage
son," one anonymous woman said,"I'd rather send him to a place
(27:53):
like Ma's, then I'd know hewouldn't be picking up any
diseases."After Ma's husband Jack died in
1932 she'd visit his grave atOak Grove cemetery on Saturdays
in a chauffeur driven car, maybethe Packard or Cadillac she
owned, and often accompanied bywomen who worked for her. She
also picked up a hobby,collecting racehorses. She
(28:16):
traveled around the country towatch them compete. She lost
nearly $200,000 when a bankfailed in 1933 but she still
seemed to have plenty of moneyleft. She built a new house in
town and helped several familiesget through the tough years of
the Depression. She ran anotherbrothel in town that was raided
(28:36):
regularly, but she was alwaysalerted in advance, so the
police found nothing illegalgoing on when they arrived. Her
fortunes changed in 1946 though,when police raided the European
Hotel, they arrested Ma and thecourt fined her $200 and
sentenced her to six months injail. She didn't serve a day,
though. She retired from thebusiness and moved to
(28:59):
California, where she diedaround 1963, probably in her 80s
or early 90s. No one really knewher age.
The European Hotel was torn downin the early 1970s.
Winona, Minnesota, just 30 rivermiles upriver of La Crosse, has
its own lengthy history of don'task, don't tell with brothels
(29:19):
and prostitution. The citybanned prostitution in 1857 and
occasionally raided suspectedhouses of ill repute, like in
1866 when police arrested twowomen at one suspected brothel,
but overall enforcement wasinfrequent. Mayor Toye ordered a
raid of brothels in 1891, butsomeone tipped off the women
(29:40):
either the police chief or ajudge, so police found a quiet
place when they showed up.
Brothels were initiallyscattered around the city, but
they eventually clustered nearthe Chicago and Northwestern
rail station in the MississippiRiver. People called them
sporting houses, and because thebrothels were mostly located on
Second Street, the women weresometimes called "two
(30:01):
streeters." By 1920 Winona'sred-light district attracted men
who worked on riverboats andrailroads, as well as soldiers
from Wisconsin's Camp McCoy whoarrived by the train load for a
night on the town. Police raidedsome places in 1920 but someone
tipped off the brothels again,except for the National Hotel
(30:21):
run by Jane Bailey, she musthave angered the wrong person.
From 1923 to 1939 though thepolice apparently did not arrest
a single person for a viceoffense.
For a while, Winona licensedbrothels, even though
prostitution was illegal understate law, women got regular
(30:42):
medical checks, and some policeofficers received complimentary
services. The city evenconsidered legalizing brothels
outright at one point, maybebecause of its laissez faire
attitude, Winona was knownthroughout the United States for
its brothels. The soldiers fromCamp McCoy also helped spread
the word quite a bit for themost part, Winonas didn't seem
(31:04):
terribly bothered by it all. Thewomen were generous tippers,
according to the taxi drivers,and sometimes the locals got
cheap entertainment. Onebrothel, for example, had holes
in the floor of a third storyroom. Voyeurs could pay a small
fee to peek through those holesand watch the action below them.
Locals also found employment inthe brothels, and some even got
(31:25):
to keep their clothes on. ClaudeWeber began a four year stint
running errands for somebrothels when he was 14 years
old. The women treated him well,and he made decent money. One of
his regular assignments waspicking up and delivering
dresses the women had orderedfrom downtown stores. He also
ran errands for brothel madamQueenie Levaque. Weber recalled
(31:46):
that she always wore a robe withtwo pockets. She kept paper
money in one and coins in theother. When he finished a job
for her, she'd reached into thecoin pocket and hand him change
without counting it out. In aninterview later in life, Weber
extolled the virtues of youngpeople in his day, "there wasn't
so much chasing around andlooseness," he said, presumably
(32:09):
without irony.
The brothels popularity withsoldiers from Camp McCoy would
eventually lead to the downfallof the district in the early
years of World War II. Armyofficials grew increasingly
concerned about the frequencywith which soldiers contracted
sexually transmitted diseases.
Some soldiers were gettinginfections that took him out of
duty before the army could sendthem overseas to fight. As it
(32:30):
had done at the start of WorldWar I, the Army pressured
cities, including Winona, toclose red light districts that
were close to its bases.
Winona's brothels hung on awhile longer, but the final blow
came on Christmas Eve 1942 whena fight broke out between
soldiers from Camp McCoy. Agroup of white soldiers fought
(32:52):
with Japanese American soldierswho were there from Hawaii. Army
officers kept a lid on openconflict when soldiers were on
base, but fights sometimes brokeout on the streets of Winona on
Christmas Eve, a melee eruptedthat resulted in multiple
arrests. The police laterreleased all the soldiers,
though, who then returned tobase. Two days later, 28 agents
(33:16):
from the Minnesota Bureau ofCriminal Apprehension descended
on Winona just after midnight.
Local law enforcement didn'tknow they were coming. Minnesota
Governor Harold Stassen,responding to pressure from Army
officials, sent the officers toshut down Winona's Red Light
District. Agents raided fivebrothels and arrested 11 women.
Minnesota was in no mood to playaround, so the state charged the
(33:39):
women with felonies, padlockedthe buildings and seized their
contents. The women who ran thebrothels eventually pleaded
guilty to running a houseoffensive to public decency,
which was a misdemeanor. Thecourts fined each madam $100 and
each prostitute $25 but thebuildings stayed closed.
(33:59):
Officials auctioned off thecontents of the buildings and
kept them padlocked for a year.
And that was that, of course.
Jjust kidding. Creativeentrepreneurs found new ways to
keep the industry alive. Abrothel called El Cid's operated
as an open secret in Winona wellinto the 1990s.
(34:22):
Thanks for listening. If youenjoyed this episode, subscribe
to the series on your favoritepodcast app so you don't miss
out on future episodes. I offerthe podcast for free, but when
you support the show with a fewbucks through Patreon to help
keep the program going, just goto patreon.com/deanklinkenberg.
If you want to know more aboutthe Mississippi River, check out
(34:43):
my books. I write theMississippi Valley Traveler
guidebooks for people who wantto get to know the Mississippi
better. I also write the FrankDodge mystery series that's set
in places along the river. Findthem wherever books are sold.
The Mississippi Valley Travelerpodcast is written and produced
by me, Dean Klinkenberg.
Original Music by Noah Fence.
See you next time you.
Red-light districts developed along the
(00:01):
Mississippi from New Orleans toMinneapolis, and authorities in
those Mississippi river towns,like their counterparts in other
communities and times, havetried many ways to tolerate,
regulate or suppressprostitution.
(00:37):
Welcome to the MississippiValley Traveler podcast. I'm
Dean Klinkenberg, and I've beenexploring the deep history and
rich culture of the people andplaces along America's greatest
river, the Mississippi, since2007. Join me as I go deep into
the characters and places alongthe river, and occasionally
wander into other stories fromthe Midwest and other rivers.
(00:58):
Read the episode show notes andget more information on the
Mississippi atMississippiValleyTraveler.com.
Let's get going.
Welcome to Episode 73 of theMississippi Valley Traveler
podcast. Well, fair warning, ifyou are accustomed to listening
to these episodes with yourchildren, with your minor
(01:20):
children, you might want to sendthem out in the yard to play, or
maybe suggest they skip thisepisode, because it'll just bore
them anyway. Because in thisepisode, we're going to take a
look at the underbelly of lifein many river towns. We're going
to take a look at the history ofprostitution and brothels in
many communities along theMississippi. Specifically, I'm
(01:42):
going to tell you some storiesabout attempts to legalize and
regulate or control prostitutionin river towns, including New
Orleans, St Louis, La Crosse,Wisconsin, and Winona,
Minnesota. Each of these hassome interesting stories to
tell, and they may surprise youwith how many have tried to
regulate or effectively legalizeprostitution in their
(02:07):
communities. This is based on achapter I wrote for a book
called "Mississippi RiverMayhem." That book is still
available everywhere books aresold. If you want to read it and
and read all about disasters andcrimes and tragedies along the
Mississippi River. But in thisepisode, we're going to zero in
on the issue of prostitution. Asalways, you can find photos and
(02:28):
show notes at Mississippi ValleyTraveler.com/podcast, and there
you will find links to allprevious 72 episodes so you can
binge them or listen to them atyour leisure.
Thanks to all of you whocontinue to show me some love
through Patreon. Your supportmeans the world to me, and it
sustains this podcast. It keepsit going. If Patreon is not your
(02:51):
thing, then, well, you can buyme a coffee. You can go to
MississippiValleyTraveler.com/podcast,and from that website, from that
page, you can buy me a coffee.
Buy me a couple of coffees. Idrink it every day. I'd
appreciate you helping tosustain my caffeine habit, as
well as this podcast. If youwant to join the Patreon
community, go topatreon.com/deanklinkenberg, and
(03:11):
you'll get early access toepisodes for as little as $1 a
month. And now on with theepisode
(03:32):
When Eliza Haycraft died in1871, St. Louisans turned out by
the thousands for her funeralprocession. She'd been a
generous philanthropist in thecity, building a fortune from
scratch and using her money tohelp black and white St.Louisans
who were down on their luck. Sheleft an estate valued at a
quarter of a million dollars, orthe equivalent of several
(03:52):
million dollars today. Butdespite her wealth and charity,
the city elites shunned her.
The Methodist church shebelonged to, wouldn't host her
funeral, so the service was heldat her home, the large house
she'd purchased from theChouteau family, descendants of
the city's founders. When sheasked to buy a burial plot in
the well-tended necropolis thatis Bellefontaine Cemetery, she
(04:14):
was initially turned away.
Bellefontaine Cemeteryeventually agreed to sell her a
plot, but she reputedly had toagree to a burial with no
marker. Haycraft may have beenwealthy and generous, but the
respectable classes turned theirbacks on her because of how she
had earned her fortune. Haycrafthad run houses of prostitution.
(04:36):
When Haycraft was 20 years old,her parents kicked her out after
they discovered that she, anunmarried woman, had been
sexually active. She got out oftown by canoeing down the
Missouri River from CallawayCounty to St Louis, where she
settled into the new city. Shehad no money or possessions of
value, just the a few clotheswith her. In 1840 a single woman
(04:59):
like Haycraft had few ways tomake money legitimately,
especially if they wereilliterate like she was. So she
took one of the few jobsavailable to her. She got hired
by a brothel to work as aprostitute. She eventually
worked her way up to running theplace, and oversaw a steady
increase in business during aperiod of time when the city's
population grew exponentially.
In the 30 years she lived in StLouis, the population exploded
(05:24):
from 36,000 to 350,000. Many ofthose new residents were single
men looking for companionship,and they had money to spend. By
the end of the Civil War, sheowned five brothels.
She invested her profits in realestate around the city and
donated money generously topeople in need. After she died,
(05:47):
most of her estate was dividedamong her surviving family
members. Two of her sisters got$100 each, but her other four
sisters equally split the restof her estate. One of the
stipulations in her will (05:58):
none of her sister's husbands could
touch any of the inheritedmoney.
Few women of that era achievedHaycraft's level of financial
success. But prostitution wasn'tan unusual occupation for that
time period, and the brothels inMississippi River towns boomed
just as much as brothels asbrothels in other parts of the
(06:19):
country. Red light districtsdeveloped along the Mississippi
from New Orleans to Minneapolis,and authorities in those
Mississippi River towns, liketheir counterparts in other
communities and times, havetried many ways to tolerate,
regulate or suppressprostitution. At the start of
World War I, the US, Navy andArmy banned prostitution within
(06:41):
five miles of military baseswhich forced a closure of famous
red light districts in placessuch as Bucktown in Davenport,
Iowa and Storyville in NewOrleans. Still, in spite of the
bans and attempts at regulation,people continued to find ways to
buy and sell sex. Prostitutionhas been as much part of St
(07:02):
Louis history as steamboatlandings and brick construction.
In the 19th century, men whowanted to buy sex had a couple
of options. They could go to abrothel and choose from among
the women who lived there, orthey could hire a more
independent professional womanand rent a room at a hotel that
specialized in accommodatingsuch assignations. Both types of
(07:24):
places ranged in quality, fromhigh-class palaces catering to
refined tastes to lowbrowestablishments concerned only
with turning over rooms asquickly as possible. In St
Louis, brothels concentratednear the riverfront in the
blocks of Poplar, Christy, andMorgan streets.
Women were arrested frequently,their male their male customers,
(07:46):
rarely so. But most arrestsresulted only in a small fine.
On some occasions, though, thepenalty could be quite harsh.
Mary Ann Frost, for example, wasconvicted of running a brothel
in January 1870 and fined$1,000. When she couldn't pay,
the judge threw her in jail andtook her eight year old son away
from her, placing him into thecustody of a city institution.
(08:10):
In the latter half of the 19thcentury, reformers in the United
States, inspired by emergingtrends in Europe, pushed the
city to register and regulateprostitution. As they did so
anti-prostitution activistscountered their efforts to
maintain legal sanctions againstprostitution, calling it
inherently immoral and a threatto families. While both sides
(08:32):
recognize the public healththreat of sexually transmitted
diseases spread throughprostitution, they didn't agree
on ways to reduce the risks.
Reformers got an opening in 1870when the state of Missouri
passed a revised charter for thecity of St Louis. The new
charter included a provisionallowing the city to regulate so
called bawdy and disorderlyhouses, houses of ill fame or
(08:52):
assignation. Shortly after that,St Louis passed the show the
Social Evil Ordinance, a measurethat created a framework for
legalized prostitution. Underthe new law, working women
registered with the city andpaid a fee and had to pass
regular health exams. When awoman failed the health exam,
(09:12):
she was sent to a hospital,where she had to stay until she
was cured. The city used some ofthe revenue generated by the
fees to build a hospital at theedge of town that treated
prostitutes. They named it theSocial Evil Hospital. Under this
new law, police could close anybrothel or order it to relocate
to another part of town. No newbrothels could open without
(09:33):
permission from the board ofpolice commissioners. The new
law also banned women fromopenly soliciting their
services, whether on a citystreet or in the window of a
brothel. Over 700 womenregistered in the first few
months, as did nearly 100brothels. Six medical examiners
performed exams on registeredprostitutes every single week.
(09:54):
The new system reduced, butdidn't stop arrests of
prostitutes. Police sometimescharge women with public
drunkenness, vagrancy, usingprofane language or disturbing
the peace instead of sexoffenses. Still, the law
probably increased thevisibility of prostitutes and
may have given the profession anew sense of legitimacy. Both of
(10:15):
those outcomes displeased manypeople. When leadership proposed
a new city charter in 1872, itincluded a provision to make
legalization permanent.
Opponents organized to stop it.
One of them was WilliamGreenleaf Eliot, a Unitarian
minister and one of the foundersof prestigious Washington
(10:37):
University. His allies includedreligious and women's groups,
many of whom had been vocalabolitionists before the Civil
War. Eliot began a relentlesspublic campaign against the
Social Evil Ordinance thatincluded writing frequent
editorials for local papers. In1873, for example, he wrote,
"consider what it is that we aredoing. We register their houses
(10:59):
at a stipulated price. We entertheir names on the city record.
We cause them to be inspectedevery week by physicians. We
take payment for this from thewages of sin. Can Christian
women who respect their own sexquietly look on while their
sisters for whom Christ died areby law recognized and upheld in
(11:21):
a pollution so deep?"Opponents attacked the law from
multiple angles. Families mightsuffer from diseases because of
a husband's misdeeds. Husbandscould stray without facing
consequences. The law fostered,quote, "a class of women who are
to be permanently held as theinstruments of the legalized
(11:42):
lust of habitually profligatemen," Eliot wrote.
These tactics failed to changethe law, though, as did
challenges to the law'sconstitutionality. Eventually,
though, support for legalizationwaned as the social evil law
appeared to undermineenforcement of other city
ordinances aimed at keepingundesirable people under
(12:05):
control. The city, for example,had a vagrancy law that gave it
wide discretion to arrest peoplewho associated with lawbreakers.
But because prostitution waslegal, one court ruled that the
vagrancy law could not be usedto punish people merely for
associating with prostitutes.
This frustrated some in lawenforcement and in the rest of
the community. By 1874 thepublic had finally turned
(12:28):
against the law. As stories ofabuse and corruption rose to the
surface some police officerswere accused of using the law as
a pretext to harass respectablewomen. There were rumors of
inappropriate behaviors by themedical examiners, and in the
middle of all this, a corruptionscandal embroiled the city
administration. While thescandal was unrelated to legal
(12:49):
prostitution, it underminedpublic confidence in city
government. Newspapers sensedthe swing in public opinion
against legal prostitution andjumped on the bandwagon,
editorializing for repeal oflegalization. In March, 1874 the
state of Missouri did what thecity hadn't yet done, and
repealed the city's authority toregulate prostitution. They also
(13:11):
passed a companion bill thatbanned police raids of brothels,
except under very limitedcircumstances, which was an
attempt to prevent retributionagainst the women who had
already registered under theThe legislature once again
relegated prostitution to thelaw.
underbelly of society, returningto the past by encouraging
(13:32):
officials to look the other wayin exchange for certain favors
and for token criminalization ofpaying for or selling sex.
Twenty years later, a thousandmiles downriver, New Orleans
began its own experiment withmanaging prostitution, even if
they never quite called itlegalization. In 1897 the city
(13:53):
passed ordinance number 13,032.
In a crafty move, thelegislation defined
neighborhoods where prostitutionwas not legal, which was
everywhere in New Orleans,except for the 10 square blocks
just north of the Frenchcorridor specified in the bill.
City officials had been tryingfor years to reduce the negative
impact of prostitution, butcourts had thrown out every
(14:15):
previous law that had legalizedit. In 1897 city officials took
a different approach and passeda carefully worded ordinance
that never indicatedprostitution was actually legal
in any part of the city, justparts of the city where it was
explicitly prohibited. Itworked. The courts ultimately
upheld the law determining thatit regulated prostitution rather
(14:38):
than legalizing it.
The main sponsor of thelegislation was Alderman Sidney
Story and in spite of hisefforts to name the area of the
district, folks started callingit Storyville, and the name
stuck. He wasn't flattered.
Storyville offered options fornearly every taste and budget
(14:59):
and visitors could consult theBlue Book or similar guides to
help them plan their activities.
In one edition, the Blue Booklays out the advantages of New
Orleans Storyville (15:06):
'Because it is the only district of its kind
in the state set aside for thefast women by law, because it
puts the stranger on a properand safe path as to where he may
go and be free from hold ups andother games usually practiced
upon the stranger. It regulatesthe women so that they may live
in one district to themselves,instead of being scattered over
(15:29):
the city and filling ourthoroughfares with
streetwalkers.'The Blue Book listed women by
name and race with an addresswhere they may be found, as well
as identifying theestablishments where they
worked, places such as CountessPiazzas, the New Manhattan
Cabaret and The Club.
Advertisers in the Blue Bookincluded taverns, distilleries,
(15:53):
breweries, including Anheuser,Busch, cigar manufacturers,
glassware, taxis, pharmacies,lawyers. Pretty much every
service one would need whenvisiting Storyville. White and
Black women rarely worked in thesame brothel, although those
segregated brothels were oftenright next to each other, while
(16:15):
white men had free rein to roamaround the neighborhood, black
men were not allowed to visitthe brothels at all. A separate
area later developed for blackmen who were looking for a
brothel, although that areaexisted in legal limbo. In
Storyville, brothels ran thegamut from lavish mansions along
Basin Street to "cribs" or rundown rooms and other parts of
(16:38):
Storyville.
The Jazz Age hadn't yet begun,but Storyville bustled with
music and dance halls. Thehigher end brothels employed
their own musicians, typicallypiano players. Tony Jackson was
widely admired as one of thebest, but Jelly Roll Morton also
played in brothels. Morton, whooften took credit for inventing
jazz (many disagree), at leastgets the credit for publishing
(17:01):
the first jazz composition insheet music form. He credited
his time in Storyville forproviding a lot of the
inspiration for his later jazztunes. If you visited the club,
you might hear blues or ragtime,but dance music really dominated
the clubs.
King Oliver led one of thebetter known bands in
Stroyville, which is where hemet and took under his tutelage
(17:24):
a young cornetist named LouisArmstrong. Over time, the
neighborhood transformed from anindustrial and residential area
characterized by wood row housesand colonnaded frame homes large
and small, to an entertainmentzone with landlords that
included Tulane University andthe Archdiocese of New Orleans.
(17:44):
The area's largely Black,working class residents were
gradually displaced by risingrents as taverns, brothels and
dance halls grew more abundant.
Storyville's end came in 1917when the federal government
pressured cities to shut downprostitution near its military
bases.
Secretary of War, Newton Bakerproclaimed, "These boys are
(18:06):
going to France. I want themadequately armed and clothed by
their government, but I wantthem to have an invisible armor
to take with them, a moral andintellectual armor for their
protection overseas." Cityofficials tried to resist the
federal pressure. Mayor MartinBehrman responded, you can make
it illegal, but you can't makeit unpopular. Ultimately, the
(18:28):
city gave in, though they reallyhad no choice. Mayor Martin
Behrman ordered all brothelsclosed by November 12, 1917.
Prostitution didn't end, ofcourse, it just slipped
underground into houses andbuildings throughout the city,
including some inside Storyvilleitself.
Hey, Dean Klinkenberg here,interrupting myself. Just
(18:52):
wanted to remind you that ifyou'd like to know more about
the Mississippi River, check outmy books. I write the
Mississippi Valley Travelerguidebooks for people who want
to get to know the Mississippibetter. I also write the Frank
Dodge mystery series that is setin places along the Mississippi.
My newest book, The WildMississippi, goes deep into the
(19:12):
world of Old Man River. Learnabout the varied and complex
ecosystem supported by theMississippi, the plant and
animal life that depends onthem, and where you can go to
experience it all. Find any ofthese wherever books are sold.
Other cities along theMississippi, including La
Crosse, Wisconsin, rarelywavered from a look the other
(19:33):
way approach. In La Crosse,prostitution had a long history.
In 1876 just 20 years after thecity incorporated, police
arrested Kate Champion forrunning a brothel. Neighbors
tattled on her which led to apolice officer gathering
evidence by standing outside awindow of her house to observe a
rendezvous in progress. Championwas convicted and sentenced to
(19:55):
six months of hard labor at theWisconsin State Prison in Waupun
in.
On September 22 1897 policearrested Carrie Scott in Olson's
Saloon while she was sitting atthe bar and talking to a man.
They weren't doing anythingunseemly, just talking, but
Lacrosse, like other cities atthe time, enforced an ordinance
(20:15):
that banned women from being ina bar unless their husbands or
fathers accompanied them. Apolice officer had seen Scott
chatting up men on the streetand following a couple of them
into a saloon. That was enoughto prompt the arrest. She was
fined 20 bucks and ordered topay another $24 in court costs.
(20:35):
The Mississippi House was apretty rough place. Basically a
low cost motel near the riverthat connected rivermen, their
primary customers, with womenwho could supply temporary
company. The Mississippi Housedid a steady business for over
30 years in the latter half ofthe 19th century, changing
locations a few times, butalways taking close to the
(20:55):
river. La Crosse officials let ared light district operate in
the 100 block of Pearl Streetfor several years, but in 1908
Mayor Wendell Anderson orderedthe brothels closed.
The policy change wasn'tuniversally embraced. Many
police officers preferred tokeep the district open because
the regulars often passed alongtips to the police about
(21:17):
suspicious new characters intown. In a previous term as
mayor, Anderson had left thedistrict alone, but he changed
his mind, because each brothelstayed open by paying a $50 fine
every quarter. For Anderson,that seemed like a licensing
fee. Anderson worried such anarrangement suggested that the
city was profiting fromprostitution, and he didn't like
(21:39):
that. He was also uncomfortablewith the fact that police didn't
permit women in the brothels towalk the streets together, or
that the women had to be back intheir houses by six in the
evening. Women who didn't livein brothels did not have to live
with any of those restrictions.
The 1908 closure didn't last,though. The next mayor Ori
Sorensen reopened the districtin 1909. He believed it was
(22:01):
better to keep the brothelsoperating openly as long as they
were restricted to a specificpart of the city. He worried
that tighter restrictions wouldjust drive prostitution
underground and make it harderto monitor. The roller coaster
ride continued from there.
Sorensen lost re election, andhis replacement, John Denger,
(22:23):
closed the district again. WhenSorensen campaigned to get his
old job back in 1913 he changedhis position and pledged to keep
the brothels closed. "During myfirst administration," he said,
"I was of the opinion that thetenderloin was a necessary
evil." He believed that a forcedclosure would just scatter the
(22:44):
problem around the city. Butafter careful study, he found
that conditions, "have grownbetter instead of worse since
the resort keepers and inmateswere driven out." The women who
worked in the brothels weresometimes called inmates.
He won in 1913 and he did notlet the brothels open again.
(23:04):
Sorensen's return to officecoincided with an investigation
into prostitution led byWisconsin state senator Howard
Teasdale. In the spring of 1913,Teasdale convened a committee to
take a hard look at, "Whiteslave traffic and kindred
subjects." Investigatorstraveled around the state
determined to expose thewidespread damage prostitution
(23:26):
caused in La Crosse. Theinvestigators found a high
concentration of brothels alongThird Street between Pearl and
State Streets. The report notedthat in many of those
establishments, a man could hirea prostitute for $2 or rent a
room for $1 and bring his owncompanion. Most of the women
were in their 20s, but some wereconsiderably older. One
(23:47):
investigator visited a tavern onFrench island north of the city,
and observed, "As soon as a manenters, these women take him by
the arm and lead him to the barand keep him there as long as he
will treat them..the worst sortof dancing, ragging and tango
are allowed."The committee's final report
accused the La Crosse PoliceDepartment of enabling
(24:08):
prostitution. "There are 21members of the department, all
included except the chief. Manyof them are bad, hand in glove
with vice and on the mostintimate terms with sporting
girls. Prominent among them isOfficer Wermuth, a brother of a
saloon keeper of the same nameon North Third Street. It is
common talk among the girls, andgenerally talked about town that
(24:32):
after closing hours of thesaloon, this officer having a
key to the rear entrance of theWet Goods Saloon takes girls in
there spending considerable timewith them. Viola Friday or
Atchison, a well knownprostitute, boasts of his
friendship with her, and otherssay. Sophie Zak, a young Polish
girl, was also his paramour."The committee recommended
(24:58):
several changes to existing lawsto reduce prostitution,
including banning women fromsaloons and eliminating back and
side entrances. Mayor Sorensenand Police Captain Lawrence
Dugan expressed support forthose ideas. The committee also
recommended raising the age ofconsent from 14 to 18, if you
can believe the age of consentwas 14 at the time the committee
(25:20):
wrote, 'We must take intoconsideration that no possession
of a woman is of as much valueto her as her honor. Yet
existing laws permit her toyield this in childhood, at a
period when in her innocence andlack of knowledge, she does not
comprehend what she is doing,nor the frightful consequences
(25:40):
of her act, thus permitting herto sacrifice that which is of
far more value to her than herproperty." Mostly, though
nothing changed after thecommittee's work.
In 1925 Anna Bennett, betterknown as Ma, opened the European
Hotel on Second Street. "Ma'swas a classy place. She wouldn't
(26:03):
let any bums in," ecalled ananonymous former customer. For
20 years, a steady stream ofmen, top business managers and
city officials included,patronized the brothel, entering
through the back door forprivacy. "Those places were just
another incidental spot where aguy went," said another former
customer. From the outside, thebuilding was nothing special,
(26:25):
just a two story brick structurewith few architectural frills
inside, though it looked like apalace, an elegant chandelier
hung in the front room,tapestries draped on the walls,
ritzy carpeting covered thefloors. The brothel even had a
nickelodeon for musicalentertainment. Ma's operated in
the heart of prohibition, butthat didn't slow down her
(26:48):
operation. She could buy a caseof beer for three bucks, but she
charged men $1 a beer for asingle bottle. Prices didn't
drop when prohibition ended, bythe way. As for the primary
services Ma's offered, men paida base rate of $2 and Ma kept
half of that. Most girls,though, charged about $5 for
(27:08):
their services. The women workedin one of the seven upstairs
rooms. Ma employed up to 20women at a time, most of them
between 18 and 25 years old, alldressed immaculately. Eight of
the women lived in the EuropeanHotel, the rest in apartments
nearby. Most didn't stay long,maybe three months at the most.
(27:30):
"Ma was on a pipeline," a friendof Ma Bennett remembered.
"Whenever she needed a new girl,all she'd have to do was make a
call to New York, Chicago,Cleveland or Minneapolis. They'd
send her a picture of the girl.
She never turned one down."Many people in town didn't seem
to mind the presence of thebrothel. "If I had a teenage
son," one anonymous woman said,"I'd rather send him to a place
(27:53):
like Ma's, then I'd know hewouldn't be picking up any
diseases."After Ma's husband Jack died in
1932 she'd visit his grave atOak Grove cemetery on Saturdays
in a chauffeur driven car, maybethe Packard or Cadillac she
owned, and often accompanied bywomen who worked for her. She
also picked up a hobby,collecting racehorses. She
(28:16):
traveled around the country towatch them compete. She lost
nearly $200,000 when a bankfailed in 1933 but she still
seemed to have plenty of moneyleft. She built a new house in
town and helped several familiesget through the tough years of
the Depression. She ran anotherbrothel in town that was raided
(28:36):
regularly, but she was alwaysalerted in advance, so the
police found nothing illegalgoing on when they arrived. Her
fortunes changed in 1946 though,when police raided the European
Hotel, they arrested Ma and thecourt fined her $200 and
sentenced her to six months injail. She didn't serve a day,
though. She retired from thebusiness and moved to
(28:59):
California, where she diedaround 1963, probably in her 80s
or early 90s. No one really knewher age.
The European Hotel was torn downin the early 1970s.
Winona, Minnesota, just 30 rivermiles upriver of La Crosse, has
its own lengthy history of don'task, don't tell with brothels
(29:19):
and prostitution. The citybanned prostitution in 1857 and
occasionally raided suspectedhouses of ill repute, like in
1866 when police arrested twowomen at one suspected brothel,
but overall enforcement wasinfrequent. Mayor Toye ordered a
raid of brothels in 1891, butsomeone tipped off the women
(29:40):
either the police chief or ajudge, so police found a quiet
place when they showed up.
Brothels were initiallyscattered around the city, but
they eventually clustered nearthe Chicago and Northwestern
rail station in the MississippiRiver. People called them
sporting houses, and because thebrothels were mostly located on
Second Street, the women weresometimes called "two
(30:01):
streeters." By 1920 Winona'sred-light district attracted men
who worked on riverboats andrailroads, as well as soldiers
from Wisconsin's Camp McCoy whoarrived by the train load for a
night on the town. Police raidedsome places in 1920 but someone
tipped off the brothels again,except for the National Hotel
(30:21):
run by Jane Bailey, she musthave angered the wrong person.
From 1923 to 1939 though thepolice apparently did not arrest
a single person for a viceoffense.
For a while, Winona licensedbrothels, even though
prostitution was illegal understate law, women got regular
(30:42):
medical checks, and some policeofficers received complimentary
services. The city evenconsidered legalizing brothels
outright at one point, maybebecause of its laissez faire
attitude, Winona was knownthroughout the United States for
its brothels. The soldiers fromCamp McCoy also helped spread
the word quite a bit for themost part, Winonas didn't seem
(31:04):
terribly bothered by it all. Thewomen were generous tippers,
according to the taxi drivers,and sometimes the locals got
cheap entertainment. Onebrothel, for example, had holes
in the floor of a third storyroom. Voyeurs could pay a small
fee to peek through those holesand watch the action below them.
Locals also found employment inthe brothels, and some even got
(31:25):
to keep their clothes on. ClaudeWeber began a four year stint
running errands for somebrothels when he was 14 years
old. The women treated him well,and he made decent money. One of
his regular assignments waspicking up and delivering
dresses the women had orderedfrom downtown stores. He also
ran errands for brothel madamQueenie Levaque. Weber recalled
(31:46):
that she always wore a robe withtwo pockets. She kept paper
money in one and coins in theother. When he finished a job
for her, she'd reached into thecoin pocket and hand him change
without counting it out. In aninterview later in life, Weber
extolled the virtues of youngpeople in his day, "there wasn't
so much chasing around andlooseness," he said, presumably
(32:09):
without irony.
The brothels popularity withsoldiers from Camp McCoy would
eventually lead to the downfallof the district in the early
years of World War II. Armyofficials grew increasingly
concerned about the frequencywith which soldiers contracted
sexually transmitted diseases.
Some soldiers were gettinginfections that took him out of
duty before the army could sendthem overseas to fight. As it
(32:30):
had done at the start of WorldWar I, the Army pressured
cities, including Winona, toclose red light districts that
were close to its bases.
Winona's brothels hung on awhile longer, but the final blow
came on Christmas Eve 1942 whena fight broke out between
soldiers from Camp McCoy. Agroup of white soldiers fought
(32:52):
with Japanese American soldierswho were there from Hawaii. Army
officers kept a lid on openconflict when soldiers were on
base, but fights sometimes brokeout on the streets of Winona on
Christmas Eve, a melee eruptedthat resulted in multiple
arrests. The police laterreleased all the soldiers,
though, who then returned tobase. Two days later, 28 agents
(33:16):
from the Minnesota Bureau ofCriminal Apprehension descended
on Winona just after midnight.
Local law enforcement didn'tknow they were coming. Minnesota
Governor Harold Stassen,responding to pressure from Army
officials, sent the officers toshut down Winona's Red Light
District. Agents raided fivebrothels and arrested 11 women.
Minnesota was in no mood to playaround, so the state charged the
(33:39):
women with felonies, padlockedthe buildings and seized their
contents. The women who ran thebrothels eventually pleaded
guilty to running a houseoffensive to public decency,
which was a misdemeanor. Thecourts fined each madam $100 and
each prostitute $25 but thebuildings stayed closed.
(33:59):
Officials auctioned off thecontents of the buildings and
kept them padlocked for a year.
And that was that, of course.
Jjust kidding. Creativeentrepreneurs found new ways to
keep the industry alive. Abrothel called El Cid's operated
as an open secret in Winona wellinto the 1990s.
(34:22):
Thanks for listening. If youenjoyed this episode, subscribe
to the series on your favoritepodcast app so you don't miss
out on future episodes. I offerthe podcast for free, but when
you support the show with a fewbucks through Patreon to help
keep the program going, just goto patreon.com/deanklinkenberg.
If you want to know more aboutthe Mississippi River, check out
(34:43):
my books. I write theMississippi Valley Traveler
guidebooks for people who wantto get to know the Mississippi
better. I also write the FrankDodge mystery series that's set
in places along the river. Findthem wherever books are sold.
The Mississippi Valley Travelerpodcast is written and produced
by me, Dean Klinkenberg.
Original Music by Noah Fence.
See you next time you.
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