boarding house next to Petersen's

[Jim Garrett]

I volunteered at Ford's today and one of our guests was a gentleman who owned the building uphill from the Petersen house (where James Tanner lived). He owned this building back in the 1980s. He told me it was a "whorehouse" at the time of the assassination! I expressed some doubt to this, but he said a couple of the boarders were ladies of the evening and worked out of their room. Anyone ever hear something about this?

[L Verge]

Amazing since I think the police department was just a few doors up.

[Linda Anderson]

"The Provost Marshal of Washington DC published a list of 83 houses of prostitution, listing the addresses of each house, along with the name of the madam, the number of "girls," and the quality of the facility. The "Pink Book," published in 1997, contains a 24 by 36 inch map showing the location of each "house." 1997, Sergeant Kirkland's Press, 100p."

http://www.theindexproject.com/the-civil...on-dc.html

[Jim Garrett]

Here I am showing my ignorance but....was prostitution illegal in Washington during the Civil War period. If it wasn't illegal, a blind eye was certainly turned. There were attempts to control and monitor it, but it was a profession that was not going to go away as long as there were thousands and thousands of soldiers, clerks, and (believe it or not, politicians) who are away from home, and the moral influence of family and friends. How convenient for the soiled doves if they did indeed live there at "the Tanner boarding house" to have a ready clientele right at the end of the block!

Linda, did the "pink book" accept advertising? As Betty would say......HA!

[Gene C]

Adds a new dimension to the meaning of "bed and breakfast"
(this comment has earned a rating of ***)

[Linda Anderson]

I don't believe that prostitution was illegal during the Civil War but the police still found ways to arrest the "working girls." It says a lot about employment opportunities for women that "working girls" is used as an euphemism for prostitutes.

I found the following information on this site: http://www.si.edu/oahp/nmaidig/start.htm

"According to the city's vagrant law, police had the authority to arrest "public prostitutes and all persons who lead a lewd and lascivious life;" however, most prostitutes were not arrested solely on the basis of their professions. 12 Throughout the 1860s and 1870s, police precinct records filed at the National Archives document that hundreds of prostitutes were arrested each year. In most cases, however, they were arrested for disturbances of the peace, such as drunkenness, profanity, disorderly conduct, and fighting, and occasionally for theft. They were generally fined a small, seemingly arbitrary, amount of money, and if they could not pay were sent to the workhouse for a month or two. 13 Most of the prostitutes who were arrested were probably streetwalkers, not the attractive denizens of discreet houses such as Mary Ann Hall's."

[Jim Garrett]

I talked with Kathy Canavan yesterday. She is a free lance writer who hope to do a book on 10th Street and it's residents at the time of the assassination. Hopefully, she will turn up more information in this area.

[JMadonna]

Amazing since I think the police department was just a few doors up.

Maybe that's where Parker was on the night of the assassination.

[BettyO]

A lot of the ladies who "performed" on the stage at the Canterbury and Metropolitan Music Halls were also considered somewhat "loose"; as was more or less shown by "Mary J. Gardner" and sister who played at the Canterbury and whose card turned up in Lew Powell's overcoat pocket! I seriously doubt that these ladies (who were supposedly "flashing their legs around" according to testimony at the 1867 Surratt Trial) were asking Lew for "spiritual advice" - SPIRITED advice perhaps, more or less....