Existing comment:
"House of prostitution are reported to be fearfully on the increase..."
-- Evening Star, September 26, 1863
Sin in the City:
At the beginning of the Civil War, there were an estimated 500 "ladies of the night" in Washington. By war's end 5,000 women (not including those residing in Georgetown) were plying their trade in the city. During the war the area now called Federal Triangle hosted numerous saloons and houses of ill repute. The idea was nicknamed "Hooker's Division" after General Joseph Hooker's Army of the Potomac. These soldiers visited the area frequently enough to inspire the term "hooker" still in use today.
One of the most important and elegant houses of prostitution in Washington during this time belonged to Mary Ann Hall. It was conveniently located at the foot of Capitol Hill, where the National Museum of the American Indian stands today. Hall's business was so lucrative that, when she died in 1886 at age 71, her estate was valued at $100,000 or $1.9 million in today's money. |