Standing with the madam before a crowd of reporters, Kempner said, "But for the grace of God, I would be in one of your houses. During her campaign she paid a visit to one of the red-light district madams, Big Tit Marie. Ruth Kempner, a grand dame of the island's patrician Kempner family, in 1960 ran on a reform platform to be the first woman elected to the city's governing body. After Mayor Herbie "Thanks a Million" Cartwright was elected in 1947, he said, "If God couldn't stop prostitution, why should I?"Įven reformers embraced the world's oldest profession. Kempner journeyed to Washington, D.C., during World War I to ask the government to ease an antiprostitution policy that hurt bordellos catering to soldiers and sailors. Take a look inside: Check out the Antique Warehouse, which was once a brothel
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In 1929 there were 55 houses of prostitution on the island providing employment for nearly 900 prostitutes.
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Because of the island's acceptance of vice it became variously known as the Open City, the Island of Illicit Pleasures, the Sin City of the South and the Free State of Galveston. For at least a century, prostitution and gambling were openly tolerated by city officials. The Galveston of the past is starkly different from the family tourism destination the island has become. Dozens of brothels had lined Post Office from 25th to 29th streets, forming a district known as The Line. They purchased the building at the corner of Post Office and 25th Street to open the Antique Warehouse, knowing that Post Office once was the heart of Galveston's red-light district. On the unused second floor they discovered 28 rooms where prostitutes once plied their trade. GALVESTON - Sealed away for decades at the top of a rotting staircase, a fragment of Galveston's infamous past lay hidden until Scott and Holly Hanson purchased the 100-year-old former Oleander Hotel. Nick de la Torre/Staff Show More Show Less ( Nick de la Torre / Houston Chronicle ) Nick de la Torre/Staff Show More Show Less 5 of5 What is believed to be a prostitute's tally is penciled on one of the walls of the second story of the former Oleander Hotel.
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( Nick de la Torre / Houston Chronicle ) Nick de la Torre/Staff Show More Show Less 4 of5 Scott Hanson, owner of the Antique Warehouse, shows a tally of money a prostitute made by turning tricks, in the second story of what was at once a brothel, Thursday, July 18, 2013, in Galveston. The building is now the Antique Warehouse,, Thursday, July 18, 2013, in Galveston. Nick de la Torre/Staff Show More Show Less 3 of5 The mens bathroom, which now leads to a set of stairs built in the 1960's was for the Johns who visited the oleander Hotel when it was a brothel. In 2003, Jack told the Hansons his story of the brothel. Nick de la Torre/Staff Show More Show Less 2 of5 An orphan boy, known to the owners as Jack, slept in this small room at the Oleander Hotel, where he did chores in exchange for food and a roof over his head. 1 of5 Scott Hanson, owner of the Antique Warehouse, shows a birthing table that was used when the building was the Oleander Hotel in Galveston's red-light district.