Alexandria Celebrates Women: History of sex work in ALX

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Alexandria Celebrates Women: History of sex work in ALX
Mary Ann Hall’s house is shown next to the arrow in close proximity to what is now the National Mall. (Photo/Smithsonian)
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By Gayle Converse

The “world’s oldest profession” is, shall we say, embedded in the history of the former American colonies – including in Alexandria.

To follow up on last month’s column revealing the city’s floating brothels, we are offering a look at the history of our area’s land-based bordellos, including the women who ran them, the women who worked in them and the women who tried to run them out of business.

Alexandria’s thriving port trade in the 1700s meant an increase in the numbers of sailors, resulting in growing numbers of sex workers in the city. This, in turn, led to rising numbers of sexually transmitted infections and more coins in the purses of women associated with the industry.

As the decades passed, women began owning and operating houses of ill repute. Despite a madam’s sullied reputation in social circles, she was business-savvy. In 1886, the estate of well-known Washington, D.C. madam Mary Ann Hall was valued at $100,000, which is $1.9 million in today’s currency. Female prostitutes, usually from poor economic backgrounds, discovered a lifestyle – at least in the better bordellos – filled with regular meals and luxurious surroundings. Jobs for females were scarce and most employment that did exist for women offered low wages.

Law enforcement prosecuted prostitution in the 18th and 19th centuries primarily with a slap on the wrist. Many police officers protected the brothels in exchange for food, money or other favors.

Alexandria’s commercial sex industry disproportionately affected women of color. According to Encyclopedia Virginia, Emily Russell, an enslaved young woman, was placed on the market for $1,800 in 1850 by the Alexandria-based slave-trading firm Bruin and Hill, destined for sale as a “fancy girl” in New Orleans. The Edmonson sisters, whose statue stands on Duke Street, were also sold by Bruin to a New Orleans bordello, but due to a yellow fever outbreak, were quickly returned to Alexandria.

During the Civil War, the occupying Union Army frequented Alexandria’s bordellos: “We did Patriot duty in the city of Alexandria until April 1863,” Union Army Lt. Charles E. Grisson wrote. “There were about seventy-five houses of ill fame in that [occupied] city and of course duty compelled us officers to visit them to see that everything was quiet, etc. The girls would do anything for us in order to keep on [our] right side for if we chose we could clean them out without ceremony – suffice I never had so much fun!”

Immediately following the Civil War, as soldiers, businessmen and politicians stayed in the capital region, the number of brothels grew to more than 450 in the District of Columbia and Alexandria combined.

Here is a brief history of sex work in Alexandria.

  • An 1864 lawsuit ruling deemed Alexandria’s Gadsby’s Tavern – then known as the City Hotel – to be a “bawdy place.”
  • During the 1860s, English immigrant Ann White operated a boarding house that doubled as a brothel in the 300 block of North Lee Street.
  • During World War II, due to its proximity to the nearby Torpedo Factory, the historic but then-dilapidated Ramsay House – which is now the Alexandria Visitor Center – at 221 King St. became a brothel.
  • In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln approved an order to dismiss Union Army Capt. Hugh Harkins for his involvement in a pickpocketing incident in a bawdy place located at 301 King St.
  • In early 1897, Alexandria declared “any person, rich or poor, white or Black, leading an immoral life, where it can be proven, would be brought to justice.”
  • In 1901, Dr. Kate Waller Barrett advocated for increased police presence in “bawdy places” to help women find “an honest living” and to find homes for any women who wished to reform.
  • In early 1914, nine “resorts” on North Lee Street were closed down by Alexandria’s then-Mayor Thomas Fisher and the city’s police chief.
  • During the 1920s and 30s, commercial sex returned to Alexandria, with the appearance of waterfront “camps.”
  • In 1982, Alexandria barred “soliciting for immoral purposes.”

The writer is a founder of Alexandria Celebrates Women, a nonprofit commemorating the centennial of women’s suffrage and highlighting influential women throughout the city’s history.

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