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Sex, money, and politics—no, it’s not a thriller novel. Minneapolis Madams is the surprising and riveting account of the Minneapolis red-light district and the powerful madams who ran it. Penny Petersen brings to life this nearly forgotten chapter of Minneapolis history, tracing the story of how these “houses of ill fame” rose to prominence in the late nineteenth century and then were finally shut down in the early twentieth century.
In their heyday Minneapolis brothels were not only open for business but constituted a substantial economic and political force in the city. Women of independent means, madams built custom bordellos to suit their tastes and exerted influence over leading figures and politicians. Petersen digs deep into city archives, period newspapers, and other primary sources to illuminate the Minneapolis sex trade and its opponents, bringing into focus the ideologies and economic concerns that shaped the lives of prostitutes, the men who used their services, and the social-purity reformers who sought to eradicate their trade altogether. Usually written off as deviants, madams were actually crucial components of a larger system of social control and regulation. These entrepreneurial women bought real estate, hired well-known architects and interior decorators to design their bordellos, and played an important part in the politics of the developing city.
Petersen argues that we cannot understand Minneapolis unless we can grasp the scope and significance of its sex trade. She also provides intriguing glimpses into racial interactions within the vice economy, investigating an African American madam who possibly married into one of the city’s most prestigious families. Fascinating and rigorously researched, Minneapolis Madams is a true detective story and a key resource for anyone interested in the history of women, sexuality, and urban life in Minneapolis.
- Sales Rank: #1153862 in Books
- Published on: 2013-07-08
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.50" h x .70" w x 5.50" l, .61 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 240 pages
Review
"An utterly engrossing, behind-the-bordello look at the collision between the Mill City’s commercial sex industry, civic corruption, and advocates for sexual purity in the 1800s, Minneapolis Madams is always empathic, never prurient, but often shocking. Historian Penny Petersen probes the nineteenth-century ecosystem of brothels and streetwalkers with a keen eye for political hypocrisy, sexual double standards, racial prejudice, and gender-driven economics. A gem of sexual and social history, this book illuminates the boudoirs of the long-forgotten red-light districts with insight, wit, and humanity." —Paul Maccabee, author of John Dillinger Slept Here: A Crooks’ Tour of Crime and Corruption in St. Paul
About the Author
Penny Petersen is a historical researcher and the author of Hiding in Plain Sight: Minneapolis’ First Neighborhood.
Most helpful customer reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
A fascinating history of the lost "naughty side" of a city...
By ewomack
Some cities would probably rather not acknowledge, or at least not showcase, their "sullied" pasts. But the corruption, vice, racism, sexism, poverty and other nasties that pervade the history of pretty much any American city typically sit just out of view crystallized in the historical amber of government records or even in remaining structures. Though one hundred years represents a mere insignificant speck in cosmic time, it nonetheless encompasses a dizzying and incomprehensible array of human progress, regress, experience, construction, destruction and changing ethos. Few people living in the city of Minneapolis today would probably recognize their city a century ago either structurally or ethically (though some things have really changed only by degree). Examining historic photos and news stories can manifest this to a shocking extent. But some may find the existence of historic red light districts right on the Minneapolis riverfront where luxury condos, theaters and restaurants now stand intriguing, beguiling or even unbelievable. Minneapolis has, intentionally or unintentionally, not really recognized, or at least not enthusiastically publicized, its fascinating history of what some called "regulated prostitution" from the late 19th century to around 1915. Though only a single structure from that era remains standing today, the records reveal an almost mind-bending stretch of the gender and race lines that otherwise restricted people at that time. The book "Minneapolis Madams: the lost history of prostitution on the riverfront" brings this incredible hidden history to light. Many buildings, names and events buried in the past reappear.
Many know the history of Minneapolis as a city of milling, lumber and warehousing. But where rich and poor people tend to gather the "oldest profession" usually follows. The book opens with a history of the city and the public denial by the founding elite that their "pure city" remained untainted by vice, or in other words, by prostitution. In contrast, historic records show a lively sex trade in Minneapolis dating back to its very founding as St. Anthony in the 1850s. Three main red light districts formed over the succeeding decades around Main Street on the St. Anthony side and on 1st and 11th streets on the west side. To the frustration of many reformers, such as "The Society for the Suppression of Vice," the city seemed to "tolerate" this industry of "ill fame" by periodically fining madams or their workers and then allowing them to go right back to engaging in their "salacious trade." These same reformers learned a stark lesson when their efforts led to the jailing of madams and the closing of red light districts in 1879. Following this "victory," prostitution spread to all parts of the city and actually became more visible and pervasive. Realizing that the "regulation" of this industry kept it contained and almost invisible, many called for the immediate pardoning of the madams and a reopening of the closed districts. Authorities complied. So go the vicissitudes of applied morality. Though the madams definitely benefited from this seeming ethical non-sequitur, the triumph didn't last. By 1910, various raids, prosecutions and other factors pretty much put an end to "licensed" prostitution in Minneapolis. With the dispersion of the telephone, the era of brothels diminished and "call girls" emerged sans madams. Time and "progress" eventually swallowed up the historic brothel buildings.
Since brothels existed they obviously needed women to work in them. Where did they come from? Chapter One, "Women's Work of All Kinds," presents a fascinating journey into the life of a late 19th century working-class woman. The choices seem stark by comparison to today's relatively wider opportunities. Many worked in unhealthy and often dangerous conditions in factories or as domestic servants in wealthy homes. Both options involved long hours and paid little more than subsistence wages. Strangely, research at the time, including the impressive investigative journalism of Eva McDonald (writing as Eva Gay), showed that more women entered prostitution from domestic servitude than from factory work. The book discusses a few theories as to why. But most women in the "ill trade" seemed to enter it following divorce, desertion by a spouse, escape from an abusive family or simply because their family already worked in the industry. The story of Kate Noonan, who shot her disloyal upper class boyfriend, Will H. Sidle, dead on Nicollet Avenue in 1877, aptly displays the era's flagrant class and gender double standards.
Numerous other topics surrounding Minneapolis prostitution receive adequate coverage, including the rise of entertainment districts, including the Theater Comique that featured blackface performances, the Liquor Patrol Limits, the Sisterhood of Bethany that rehabilitated "fallen women," the shady political career of Mayor Albert "Doc" Ames, "French Balls," the unfounded "white slavery" scare of the 1890s that reformers used to rally against brothels and the now very quaint and prudish 1911 vice report which included even more abhorrent double standards, including "race purity," though it did recommend an end to "excessive consumerism" and called for more playgrounds to keep kids from bars and theaters where "vice lurked." The book frames its topic in the culture of its time, which brings it completely to life and exposes the sometimes humorous, though also sometimes outright offensive, problems, contradictions and trade-offs that occur when class against class morality and legislation collide. Ultimately, the "ill trade" went underground where it largely remains today, though the book does not discuss contemporary prostitution.
Though the book maintains a moral distance from the issue of prostitution itself, its stars and focus remain the madams. Many names now buried in Minneapolis history emerge from the narrative, specifically Edna Hamilton, Nettie Conley and Ida Dorsey. In a time when women saw few socially mobile opportunities, these women owned and managed property, amassed wealth and ran their own businesses. They shaped Minneapolis in unacknowledged ways, for better or worse. Even more extraordinary for the time, Ida Dorsey was an African-American woman who employed African-American prostitutes (though only white clients were allowed). One of her buildings at 212 11th Avenue South still stands today in the shadow of the new Guthrie Theater. It remains the only existing 19th century brothel structure in Minneapolis. A recent building on the same block, erected since the 2006 photo included in the book, seems intentionally constructed around the historic structure.
"Minneapolis Madams" reveals a largely undocumented, unexplored and fascinating facet of Minneapolis history. The historic photos and maps included help situate this history in the present and demonstrate the staggering change that has forever changed the city's look and feel. A 1907 picture of the 1st Street South red light district, taken from the still standing Hall and Dann Barrel Factory Building, looks like a different world from today. Only the Hennepin Avenue bridge in the background, though in a previous incarnation, provides any reference point. Though the city has undoubtedly changed, human nature really hasn't. The sometimes Quixotic fight against this particular "vice" seems to go hand in hand with industrialization, a migratory or single workforce and the pressures of keeping up day to day appearances. History contains many dimensions and even those dimensions that many would prefer to obscure or deny still exerted an influence, for better or worse. "Minneapolis Madams" makes a convincing argument that the now largely forgotten 19th century madams exerted an indubitable influence on Minneapolis' riverfront.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful.
The Dark Side of Minneapolis History
By Marilyn Matheny
This is a great book for Minneapolis historians. The author did her research and other historians will benefit. The story is a bit disjointed and not always chronological, but she gives us great details and much insight into these women's lives. She illuminates the political, moral and ethical struggles between the New Englanders, who were the city founders, and the more liberal-minded later immigrants and the role these struggles played in the treatment of prostitution. It is fascinating. There are maps and many newspaper reports from the time that add great color to the book. There is the infamous Doc Ames who, as Mayor, hired his brother and other cronies with the goal of corruptly filling his pockets as quickly as possible. One method was by collecting fines from the madams. It is a rich resource for anyone interested in researching Minneapolis during this time period, roughly 1850 to 1900. I recommend it highly.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Well-researched and eye-opening
By Aggie M.
I was drawn to this book quite unexpectedly. I opened it in the bookstore to discover that a familiar building one block from my office used to be a house of "ill fame" a hundred years ago. The author has done an excellent job of drawing together solid, documented information from many different sources on a profession that existed "in the shadows," and for which media coverage was often slanted and/or incomplete. What emerges is a fascinating and often complicated portrait of civic concerns, madams' business practices, and real women's lives in an industry that operated on the fringes of 19th century society.
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