Red Light Women of Death Valley by Robin Flinchum

Author:Robin Flinchum
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2015-04-29T04:00:00+00:00

In Rhyolite, the dance halls, brothels and cribs were confined to a square block-and-a-half area, with Vaughn’s brothel marking the northwest outer limits. Officially, the district was bounded on the north by Broadway, on the south by Colorado, on the west by the alley between Main and Amargosa and on the east by Ladd. Thus situated, it was conveniently near the business district only a couple blocks away on Golden Street. A sturdy town jail was eventually constructed on the corner of Colorado and Ladd, marking the tenderloin’s southeastern outer limits.

Here, and here only, prostitution was legal and even acceptable as a business endeavor. Unlike California, which had outlawed prostitution entirely, Nevada allowed its counties and towns to govern their own red-light districts with some basic restrictions regarding the placement of schools and churches in proximity to brothels and dance halls. Within the bounds established by the Rhyolite Board of Trade, the women were free to work at their chosen profession as long as they paid their monthly five-dollar-a-head license fees and did not stray outside the bounds of the established district.

RHYOLITE TOWN ORDINANCE NO. 5

Licensing and Regulating Prostitutes

Section No. 1.—Every baudy house and every crib or room within the town limits used and occupied for purposes of prostitution shall be required to have a town license therefor. Such license shall be for one (1) calendar month and the fee therefor shall be five dollars for each inmate for such house, crib or room. The occupation of any such house, crib or room by owner or leaser without first having secured such license shall be deemed an offense and shall be punished as hereinafter provided.

Section No. 2.—No person shall sell or cause to be sold any intoxicating drinks in any house, crib or room within the town limits used or occupied in whole or in part for purposes of prostitution without having first obtained a town license therefor. Such license shall be for one calendar month and the fee therefor shall be twenty-five dollars. Any violation of this section shall be deemed an offense and shall be punished as hereinafter provided.

Section No. 3.—No house, crib or room with the town limits shall be used or occupied as a dance or hurdy gurdy house, or for the purposes of prostitution except within the territory bounded on the north by Broadway, on the south by Colorado street, on the west by the alley between Main and Amargosa streets and on the east by Ladd street of the town of Rhyolite. Any person violating this section shall be deemed guilty of an offense and punished as hereinafter provided.

—Established by Town Board of Rhyolite, August 7, 1907.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.