Inside LaVilla's long-forgotten red light district

Centered around Ward Street in LaVilla, Jacksonville's notorious early 20th century red light district was a dense and complicated landscape that most Jaxsons know very little about. Home to more than 60 bordellos and popular madams Cora Crane, Belle Orloff and Lyda De Camp, here are five forgotten facts associated with the district.

“Disorderly houses,” not brothels

Owned by Cora Taylor Crane, The Court was the red light district’s largest disorderly house. Located at the southwest corner of Ward and Davis Streets, Crane purchased the property from the parents of James Weldon and John Rosamond Johnson in 1902. The transaction was handled by J. Douglas Wetmore, a childhood friend and business partner of James Weldon Johnson. | Syracuse Library Stephen Crane Collection

Locally, the terms brothel and bordello were rarely used. Instead, establishments in LaVilla’s red-light district were commonly referred to as “resorts” or “disorderly houses,” a label codified by city law. An 1876 Jacksonville ordinance formally defined any house of ill fame, used for prostitution or known as a resort of prostitutes or persons of lewd character, as a disorderly house, declaring such places dangerous to the peace and morals of the city. Owners, agents, lessees, and operators were all legally identified as keepers of disorderly houses. Women working in their disorderly houses were called inmates. The designation extended beyond prostitution. Gambling houses and saloons selling beer, wine, or spirituous liquors were also classified as disorderly houses, reflecting the city’s broad attempt to regulate vice through language rather than eradication.

A district of aliases and notorious names

From left to right: The Turkish Harlem, the New York Inn and The Crescent were three bordellos developed by Rosa Neunert between 1897 and 1904. Her properties were described as elaborate and well kept buildings with elegant interiors with wallpaper, oriental rugs, fine draperies and antique furnishings, and they catered to the socially elite. Each had a similar floor plan, with parlors or “ballrooms’’ in the front followed by a central hall providing access to a number of bedrooms on either side. | Florida Division of Historic Resources.

Ward Street, later renamed Houston Street in an effort to soften the area’s image, served as the epicenter of the district, but disorderly houses also extended along Broad, Madison, Davis, Adams, Forsyth, and Bay Streets. These establishments included saloons, vaudeville theaters, and brothels operating side by side. Among the best-known bordellos were The Court, Turkish Harem, House of Spanish Marie, The Senate, The Club, New York Inn, and the Atlanta House. Aliases were common. Mary Ellen Norman, an inmate at 838 Ward Street and described in 1905 as one of the city’s most notorious women, was known locally as Hog Eye Missie. Vivian Harris, an inmate at 915 Ward Street in 1908, used the name Lottie Quiesenbary in Jacksonville and Katherine Hargins during her time in Lexington, Kentucky.

Opium dens in the shadows of Ward Street

Examples of two West Adams Street laundries are identified as businesses sharing back yards with brothels on Ward Street in 1913. Brothels are described as female boarding or “F.B.” in this Sanborn Fire Insurance Company map. | University of Florida

Beyond prostitution, the red-light district supported a robust underground drug trade. Opium dens were common, many operated by Chinese laundry owners whose properties backed up to Ward Street’s bordellos. One of the most prominent figures was Lou Gat, known locally as Wah Hop, a wealthy businessman who operated a laundry at 713 West Adams Street. Arrested in 1912 for manufacturing opium, Hop’s business was described as a house of mystery, reportedly containing numerous rooms, bunks, trap doors, and subterranean caverns. In addition to laundry services, the shop sold teas, spices, manufactured goods, and Chinese medicines. Although Hop was released from prison after several months for good behavior, his operation returned to public attention a year later when an employee, Lewis Loget, was arrested for selling opium to Pansy Smith, an inmate of 905 Ward Street. Smith was also arrested for purchasing the drug.