How a Brothel Madame Built Seattle

In the summer of 1899, gold was discovered in Alaska, enticing over 100,000 enterprising souls to pick up and head for the far North to seek their fortunes. A large majority of these would-be prospectors passed through Seattle on their way to the new-found gold fields. Canada spent enormous sums of money and resources trying to recover dead travelers attempting the trek from Washington State who ran out of supplies and froze to death. To solve this problem, the Canadian government eventually passed a law that prospectors had to have a certain amount of supplies for every month the difficult journey would last. They made sure that the amount of required supplies, around 1,000 lbs per month, would be prohibitively expensive to keep the numbers of migrants low. They hoped the law would ensure the American miners who did pass through would have enough supplies to at least make it out of Canada before they met their maker.

The city of Seattle capitalized on this law, and the gold rush in general, selling supplies and entertainment to the multitudes that began passing through, and business started booming. Not surprisingly, moonshine and hookers became a huge part of the revenue and culture of the city, since the constant stream of miners were looking to have a good time before making the long journey. Many underground tunnels were hastily constructed in order to bring booze from the port into the city.

Madame Lou

At this time, a German-born brothel owner named Lou Graham (her real name was Dorothea Georgine Emile Ohben), became famous as the madame of a brothel in the Pioneer Square district of town. Known as the Queen of the Lava Beds, in reference to the filled in tidal flats where her brothel resided, she became one of the Seattle's most wealthy citizens. At first, she ran her business under the guise of a Seamstress shop. Eventually, the town government caught on when they noticed that she was making profits 10 times greater than anyone else around.

Madame Lou's Parlor

When the police threatened to shutter the place, the Madam pointed out that her ladies of the night brought in more than half of the city's revenue in taxes. Town officials were quick to agree, realizing that if they shut her down, they would lose huge revenues.

Former Brothel Site - Now A City Court Building

Soon Lou Graham became a powerful figure in Seattle. She opened her brothel to any city official free of charge, and eventually it was estimated that more official Seattle business was undertaken in her facility than at City Hall. She made generous gifts for civic projects, and initiated the fortunes of many of Seattle's leading families with the loans she gave out. She also looked out for the well-being of her ladies, requiring them to study business and the stock market, so they could make better lives for themselves as well as be able to converse knowledgeably with their distinguished clientele. She also required that each woman learn a second language, and insisted that they find a different job after 3 years as a prostitute. Many went on to start successful businesses selling supplies to the prospectors and citizens of the town.