{"id":13946,"date":"2020-03-02T09:18:56","date_gmt":"2020-03-02T14:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phillyhistory.wpengine.com\/?p=13946"},"modified":"2020-03-03T12:00:12","modified_gmt":"2020-03-03T17:00:12","slug":"will-history-forget-philadelphias-sex-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/2020\/03\/will-history-forget-philadelphias-sex-workers\/","title":{"rendered":"Will History Forget Philadelphia\u2019s Sex Workers?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Title Page, A Guide to the Stranger, or Pocket Companion for the Fancy, 1849, (The Library Company of Philadelphia)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSome people may think that this is the most virtuous place under the sun, but let them look over these pages, and perhaps they may open their eyes in amazement at the amount of crime committed nightly in “this City of Brotherly Love.\u201d<\/p>\n

So began an anonymously-authored Guide to the Stranger, or Pocket Companion for the Fancy Containing a List of the Gay Houses and Ladies of Pleasure in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection<\/em>, published in 1849.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany hundred men, yes, I may say thousands, are weekly led into the snares employed by the wily courtezans [sic],\u201d whose estimated numbers \u201care ten thousand and upwards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actually, we have no way of knowing. But we do know from the Library Company\u2019s online exhibition\u2014Capitalism By Gaslight<\/a>\u2014that \u201cthe trade thrived … that prostitution grew into “a highly lucrative business for some girls, young women” and the “widowed or abandoned” who “turned to prostitution to support themselves and their children.” The so-called oldest\u00a0 profession “allowed young women (many of them African Americans) a modicum of economic and social independence they could not have had otherwise. Savvy women worked their way up to become successful madams who lived in relative comfort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prostitutes, or sex workers\u2014\u201cdisorderly women as they were frequently called\u2014were familiar figures in the landscape of the disorderly city\u201d wrote historian Marsha Carlisle. \u201cThey moved freely and openly in parks, on the streets, and in places of amusement. Along with paupers and peddlers, they used public spaces to their own advantage. \u2026 Their brothels were households in mixed neighborhoods, but their working environment included the streets, the parks, the theaters and local taverns.”<\/p>\n

Prostitutes based in the dozens of brothels west of Washington Square solicited in nearby theaters (Arch, Chestnut and Walnut Street Theatres) whose owners appreciated the fact that sex workers attracted paying customers. According to Carlisle, \u201cprostitutes had displayed themselves from the third tier of the theater from the beginning of American drama. They came to the theater from the brothel households in groups, often several hours before curtain time. Once there, they made contact with customers, old and new, in the upper gallery, to which there was a special entrance for their use.\u201d At one point, Philadelphia\u2019s theaters were said to \u201cswarm\u201d with \u201ccrowds of painted prostitutes,\u201d who \u201cexhibited their shamelessness\u201d in the \u201cbroad glare of the lamps.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Samson Street to South Street, 8th to 13th Streets.\u00a0Detail of map derived from locations within “A Guide to the Stranger, or Pocket Companion for the Fancy, Containing a List of the Gay Houses and Ladies of Pleasure in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection.\u201c 1849\u00a0 (The Library Company of Philadelphia).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mary Shaw and her clients could easily escape the \u201cbroad glare.\u201d Shaw’s well-appointed \u201cbed house” flourished just a few steps south of Walnut Street, just down Blackberry Alley. The guide credited Shaw as a landlady \u201cof the cleverest sort\u201d known \u201cfor her amiable disposition and kindness of heart\u201d in addition to a most convenient location. No less than seven other brothels lined Blackberry Alley (now Darien Street) which ran two blocks from Walnut to Spruce.<\/p>\n

Yet, there’s no historical marker to be found.<\/p>\n

At #4 Blackberry Alley, according to our guide, the \u201ctalented, accomplished, motherly, affectionate\u201d Mrs. Davis maintains her \u201ctemple of pleasure\u201d doing \u201call in her power to add to the comfort of her friends and visitors.\u201d All of her boarders were \u201cyoung, beautiful, volatile and gay. \u00a0. . . You will find few houses like it. None better.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few steps further to the south, Susan Wells\u2019 house, was rated \u201cquiet and comfortable.\u201d Hal Woods\u2019 was considered \u201ctolerably fair.\u201d Therese Owens\u2019 got labeled a \u201csecond class house.\u201d Furthest south, nearly where Blackberry Alley opened to Spruce\u00a0 Street, one would find Ann Carson\u2019s \u201cgenteel loafer crib\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Houses, whether highly recommended or not, tended to provide reliable protection from the authorities. After police picked up the 15-year-old Maria Walsh parading the streets wearing \u201ca revealing calico dress,\u201d no bonnet, and \u201cbright copper earrings\u201d (\u201csigns of a public woman\u201d) she was charged with vagrancy and sentenced to a month in jail.<\/p>\n

But owning real estate didn\u2019t always<\/em> keep the authorities at bay. According to Carlisle, “Blackberry Alley became the target of a nine-house raid that resulted in the arrest of sixteen men and thirty-eight women” in 1854.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
243 South Warnock Street in 1958. Formerly No. 43 Currant Alley, the brothel of Mary Baker, “a\u00a0 very good house.” (PhillyHistory.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Some brothels warranted dire warnings. Just two blocks west of Blackberry Alley, on Locust between 10th and 11th Streets, lived\u00a0 and worked \u201cthe bald and toothless\u201d Mrs. Hamilton. \u201cBeware of this house,” warned the guide, \u201cas you would the sting of a viper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around the corner at No. 43 Currant Alley (now Warnock and Irving Streets) still stands Mary Baker\u2019s \u201cvery good house\u201d where clients would be \u201cfree from danger. The young ladies are all gay and beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another cluster of houses were found further to the west, at 12th and Pine Streets. They ranged from Mrs. O’Niel’s “Palace of Love,” to Mrs. Rodgers \u201cgood house\u2014perfectly safe\u201d to that of Catharine Ruth (alias Indian Kate) where readers were advised to “be careful.” Not far away, Liz Hewett ran \u201ca tolerable second rate house\u201d and \u201cMy Pretty Jane,\u201d operated her \u201cshanty” a “resort of very common people.\u201d<\/p>\n

A block south on Lombard, above\u00a0 12th Street, one might encounter Madam Vincent\u2019s \u201clow house.\u201d Readers were warned to \u201cbe cautious when you visit this place, or you may rue it all your lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

South of South Street, beyond the city proper, were areas beyond even the slightest suggestion of policing. \u201cOne of the worst conducted houses in the city\u201d the guide reported of Sarah Ross\u2019s, located at German Street (now Fitzwater) and Passyunk Road. \u201cThe girls, though few in number, are ugly, vulgar and drunken. We would not advise anybody of common sense not to say there.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the guide ventured into the notorious heart of Moyamensing, Bainbridge Street between 4th and 8th, finding \u201cnumerous brothels of the lowest order\u2026houses of prostitution of the lowest grade, the resort of pickpockets and thieves of every description.\u201d Nothing less than \u201cthe underbelly of the city,\u201d confirmed Carlisle, who shared tales of the feared \u201cDuffy\u2019s Arcade,\u201d a gallery of windowless 8-by-10-foot rooms, and the \u201cgambling hell and brothel\u201d known as \u201cDandy Hall.\u201d Only one visit to these places could lead to “utter ruin and disgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe stranger is earnestly admonished not to go there\u201d urges the guide.<\/p>\n

But historians, the keepers of public memory, must.<\/p>\n

[Sources<\/em>: A Guide to the Stranger, or Pocket Companion for the Fancy Containing a List of the Gay Houses and Ladies of Pleasure in the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection<\/a><\/em> (Philadelphia: 1849); Marcia Carlisle, \u201cDisorderly City, Disorderly Women: Prostitution in Ante-Bellum Philadelphia<\/a>,\u201d The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, <\/em>Vol. 110, No. 4 (Oct., 1986), pp. 549-568; Capitalism by Gaslight: The Shadow Economies of 19th-Century America<\/a> (The Library Company of Philadelphia: 2012).]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cSome people may think that this is the most virtuous place under the sun, but let them look over these pages, and perhaps they may open their eyes in amazement at the amount of crime committed nightly in “this City of Brotherly Love.\u201d So began an anonymously-authored Guide to the Stranger, or Pocket Companion for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.phillyhistory.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}