- Venus Alley
Venus Alley was a famous
red-light district once located in Butte,Montana in theUnited States . It flourished from the late 19th century through the early 20th century and was one the last openly tolerated urbanprostitution districts in theAmerican West , along with the one in Reno,Nevada . It was closed in the 1970s.Venus Alley rose in the 1880s during the heyday of Butte as a wide-open
copper -mining town, full of hundreds of saloons andgambling halls. The block-long district was located in the center of town off Wyoming Street. The name "Venus Alley" came from the rear entrance of the famousDumas Brothel , one of the longest running houses of prostitution in the U.S. The brick-lined alley was lined with "cribs", overhung with a single white light bulb over each entrance. The north side of the alley was lined with the famous "double-deckers", where the alley-level cribs were surmounted by a wooden planks and a second row of cribs. The women who worked the cribs typically wore brightly-colored and short-skirted dresses. The cribs were equipped with call boxes for ordering drinks or food from nearby bars and noodle parlors.The structure of the Dumas Brothel, as well as the brick-lined alley, still stands in uptown Butte and has become a tourist attraction.
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