A visiting journalist wrote in the 1890s that this neighborhood was “like a street leading into hell,” and, in 1910, even the passionate bar-smasher Carry Nation failed to make an impression. Here in the sleepless heart of Butte’s red light district, prostitutes and gamblers conducted their illegal business. Fourteen prostitutes worked on this side of the block in 1900, many out of one-room rentals or “cribs” that lined the street. That year Annie Jones age 21 and divorcee Edna Hall age 36 entertained customers in the two frame-and-brick cribs that stood at this address. Remodeling later incorporated these cribs into the present building, and after 1917 progressive reforms and prohibition brought dramatic changes to Butte’s demimonde. Parlor house, brothels, and cribs were either torn down or, like the Butte Tin Shop, converted to respectable businesses.
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