Milwaukee’s Red-Light District

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In 1898, Democratic reform ticket candidate David S. Rose was elected mayor of Milwaukee, and his administration was quicky tainted with bribery, graft, and corruption. In addition, notorious dens of prostitution flourished a mere block from City Hall, and Rose’s willingness to ignore them helped build Milwaukee’s reputation as a thriving sin city of the Midwest. The voters didn’t care. The flamboyant and charismatic Rose had a phenomenal memory and addressed hundreds of people by name on his daily walks. To compliment his handsome Kentucky-colonel goatee, Rose adopted an occasional Southern dialect.

Historically, Milwaukee had houses of ill-fame, and at one time there were several brothels on East Wisconsin Avenue where the Iron Block is today. By 1880, new buildings and businesses had driven the madams and their girls to River Street (now North Edison Street) between East Wells and State streets. In this non-residential area, prostitutes freely plied their trade because the police were paid to patrol other neighborhoods. 

In 1884, 20-year-old Katherine “Kitty" Williams arrived from California and opened a brothel in a Victorian mansion at 219 East State Street. Within five years, her house had become a favorite of conventioneers and businessmen. Williams’ reputation extended to Chicago, and trains began transporting new clients on a regular basis. 

For the next decade, Rose’s city attorney discreetly monitored two dozen houses with 269 women.  A digest-sized publication, The Sporting and Club House Guide to Milwaukee, was sold for 50-cents ($20 in today’s currency) by bartenders, bellboys, carriage drivers and others in the service industry. The book listed the sanctioned houses and carried the name of the madam, the number of ladies, and the beverages available for purchase. Although many elected officials were River Street regulars, Rose was not among them. He didn’t drink and chose not to frequent the houses.

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As her business increased, Kitty Williams purchased the property next to her house on East State Street. The operation now comprised 42 private rooms accessed by a $60,000 staircase. One of the deluxe rooms had an elaborate sunken tub, marble floors, and running fountains, another had a Japanese bath, and a third featured a Roman throne and dais. As patrons entered the house, they sipped sherry while a string quartet provided background music. The women were expected to socialize and encourage sales of wine, beer and cigars.

Most of the River Street houses charged a dollar to visit a woman. Williams’ fees were $2, $3, and $5, depending on what level of service the patron desired. Her employees usually grossed about $800.00 a month and paid Williams half of their earnings toward upkeep of the premises, a room, food, clothing, physician bills and other necessary expenses. By contrast, a working man’s salary was $50 to $75 per month, often for a 10-hour shift.

Wide-Open Town

By 1908, Milwaukee’s reputation as a wide-open town tripled the number of conventions held in the city. Socialist party members, wanting to unseat Rose, exposed his administration’s shady deals involving liquor licenses, gambling, streetcar franchises, and street paving. Of 254 indictments, grand juries eventually returned 23 convictions. The city treasurer and more than 70 aldermen and supervisors resigned as Rose’s empire crumbled. He lost the mayoral election of 1910 to Emil Seidel. The houses in River Street were shut down and Seidel and District Attorney Winifred Zabel padlocked the doors to Kitty Williams’ mansion while newspapermen snapped photographs.

Kitty Williams went into seclusion, living on the wealth generated in her heyday. But by 1935, she was 75 years old and strapped for cash. The Common Council granted a license to operate a bar in her State Street home. The license was revoked four years later when she was caught running a rendezvous for gay men. Williams made her final court appearance in 1940 wearing red bedroom slippers and a hat with two lavender birds. She died in January 1943 and was buried in Madison’s Forest Hill Cemetery.

Williams’ house was razed in 1963 to make way for construction of the Performing Arts Center. Her legacy, however, is preserved in the Milwaukee Public Museum’s “Streets of Old Milwaukee.” A Victorian parlor room within the exhibit is an exact replica of one in Williams’ mansion, a silent tribute to the infamous Queen of River Street.