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111. The Brothels of Pensacola (Part VII)

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Updated: Apr 1, 2022


While some saloons in the downtown area sought and earned a highly respectable reputation, others could more accurately be described as nothing, but a dance hall. Here the customer could get a beer and a dance for a dollar. One large saloon located on the corner of Pine and Palafox Street became notorious for its gambling and violence. A number of murders occurred there with few of them ever being solved. This type of violence was common in some of the more unsavory establishments such at the “Alligator” located on the corner of Wright and Tarragona Street. But the beginning of the end for the city’s bordellos came during the turbulent years of World War I.


As the military gained influence and power during America’s entry into the war, they began to turn a baleful eye toward those areas where their off duty personnel were frequenting. A sailor or soldier with venereal disease became a member of the armed forces that had to be hospitalized and treated and unavailable for combat. Slowly, they began putting pressure on the city’s fathers and chief law enforcement officers. During July of 1917 alone, the city closed sixteen bordellos, but instead of eliminating the problem the madams just took their services outside the red light district. Surely, the powers to be did not think that they were going to eradicate the world’s oldest profession as easily as that.


After the war the brothels returned for a time, but by the 1920’s the red light district was all but gone from the Pensacola landscape. One of the last to go was a brothel called the “Town Club” at 123 West Zaragoza Street. The house was managed by a madam named Miss Evelyn. A few hung on until World War II when the military returned to the downtown district to finish what they had started twenty-five years before.

Pensacola News Journal Article of 5-15-1941


Pensacola News Journal Article of 9-26-1943


Pensacola News Journal Article of 1-30-1945



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