Venus Alley, Butte
Template:Short description Venus Alley (also known as Whore, Peasant and Piss Alley)<ref name="Big Sky Journal" /> was a famous red-light district once located in Butte, Montana in the United States.<ref name="cityprofile">Template:Cite web</ref> It flourished from the late 19th century through the early 20th century and was one of the last openly tolerated urban prostitution districts in the American West, along with the one in Reno, Nevada. It was closed in the 1970s.<ref name="cityprofile" />
History
Venus Alley rose in the 1880s during the heyday of Butte as a wide-open copper-mining town, full of hundreds of saloons and gambling halls.Template:Sfn 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 famous Dumas Brothel, one of the longest running houses of prostitution in the U.S.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The brick-lined alley was lined with "cribs", overhung with a single white light bulb over each entrance. Although made illegal in 1890 by the city fathers, the establishments continued to operate by bribery of the city police.Template:Sfn
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.Template:Sfn The women who worked the cribs typically wore brightly colored and short-skirted dresses, and would stand in the windows to attract customers.<ref name="Women's History Matters">Template:Cite web</ref> The cribs were equipped with call boxes for ordering drinks or food from nearby bars and noodle parlors.Template:Sfn
In 1903, prostitution was regulated in Butte.<ref name="Big Sky Journal" /> The women were ordered to wear longer dresses with high necklines, and blinds had to be installed in the windows. The prostitutes banded together and protested. Street solicitation was banned, so doorways were opened up into the cribs and passageways between then built, creating a labyrinth off of the street where the women continued to solicit.<ref name="Women's History Matters" />
The area expanded in around 1916 when the price of copper rose to a new high, but was closed down the following year by Federal law designed to protect WW1 soldiers from venereal disease. However prostitution continued underground.<ref name="Women's History Matters" />
The area reopened in the 1930s,<ref name="Women's History Matters" /> and a screening fence erected at the end of the alley to keep the activities hidden from the public view.Template:Sfn In 1943 prostitution was prohibited in Butte, the cribs closed down although the more discreet brothels continued to operate.<ref name="Big Sky Journal">Template:Cite web</ref>
Decline
After WW2 the cribs reopened, but were demolished in 1954, following the city's designation as a National Historic Landmark the year before.Template:Sfn The Windsor Hotel, a brothel, was closed by arson in 1968. Its madam, Beverly Snodgrass, went to Washington to complain to her senator about the loss of her income. She claimed she had been paying the Butte police $700 a month for protection. Senator Mike Mansfield decided this was a local matter not a federal one.<ref name="Women's History Matters" /> Following an eight part series on vice in the Great Falls Tribune, the remaining three brothels in Butte closed.Template:Sfn The Dumas Brothel soon reopened and continued to operate until 1982.Template:Sfn Its closure coincided with the closure of the last copper mine in the area.<ref name="Women's History Matters" />
The structure of the Dumas Brothel, as well as the brick-lined alley, still stands in uptown Butte and has become a tourist attraction.