Update on El Dorado's last whorehouse

Pics of El Dorado's last whorehouse:

As mentioned in an earlier posting the demolition of a 1920s set of building revealed an old (1878) house hidden behind brick walls. Yesterday, I went in the old house and what I saw was amazing. Instead of just being connected to the store front, the house was integrated into the building in such a way as to give its occupants a full upstairs floor with a central hallway that extended from Washington Avenue all the way through the house. When you're upstairs the remodeling is so good that you think the house actually extended from the street. However, a closer look reveals the upper floor, from the house to the street, was added in the 1920s and a back secret stairwell was put in to connect the downstairs store to the upstairs. In order to get into the house you would have had to go through the retail store downstairs and then in the back corner of the store,---behind the storeroom--open a door that led to a stairwell to the second floor. When you reached the top of the stairs there was a small reception area. Then a continuous hallway that extended from Washington Avenue to the back of the house. Along this hallway were 10 rooms, five on either side of the hall--and one bathroom at the end of the hall.
A recent conversation reveals an interesting sidelight to this old building. In 1956-57 a young high school student was a delivery boy for Samples Department Store. He recalls making deliveries to this address---"I saw all these women, but until later I didn't figure out what they were doing there." From the history I have put together, I am confident that this building was a house of prostitution from the very early 1920s until El Dorado finally shut them down in the early 1960s. A former desk clerk in a downtown hotel, noted in the early 1950s there were approximately 8 houses of prostitution in El Dorado. These were a carryover from the 1920s oil boom. The discription below is from my unpublished novel The Queen of Hamburger Row (South Washington Avenue).

........She started walking down South Washington Street, and soon she was back in the area called Hamburger Row, where she had seen the girls working at Jake’s Place. It was almost seven when Masha arrived. She stopped outside to look up at the building. The sight of Jake’s Place, its massive two story front dominating the buildings around it, was enough to stop most people, who wondered how such an enormous monstrosity could exist. The building had been thrown up quickly, and sloppy construction made for an uneven floor, which was always soiled with sawdust, tobacco juice, and spilt beer. The oil wells around El Dorado, which were a virtual faucet of money, had birthed this grotesque, misshapen eyesore of a building, which was set off by bright red, double swinging doors. However, the red doors contrasted with the building’s exterior, which was made up of peeled, flaking white paint on green, uncured lumber. You might think that this bizarre appearance would be enough to turn away most men, but the stories about Jake’s Place and the prancing girls out front were easily enough to fill the saloon to capacity.
The girls were back inside when Masha walked up. She hesitated, but finally got up the courage to push open one of the red doors and step into the saloon. To her, a step inside Jake’s Place was like stepping into a smelly cesspool, as a thick, moisture-laden cloud of tobacco smoke, cheap perfume, and spilt beer hung in the air, startling her senses. The bar was made of massive logs, nailed together and covered with a plank front, and the seats at the bar were cross-cut log sections on which the women perched, like birds begging for favors. She looked around and noticed men standing at the bar with girls, who were touching and rubbing them while begging for attention. “Buy me a drink----lookin’ for a little fun?” they mumbled as they solicited every man who stepped inside.