Once we got back into town we took a tour of ‘Dollys House’. Dolly was one of the local madams that had a house on Creek St – the local red light area. She paid $800 for the house and had it fully paid off 2 weeks after arriving! Business was brisk as there were few women in the town. A mans wages for a week was $1. Dolly charged $3 a visit. She also traded in local and Canadian liquor that was smuggled in via a trapdoor under the house. It was 50c for a half shot of local liquor and $1 for a half shot of Canadian liquor.
The women were only allowed to go to the shops into town on one day of the weeks for shopping. Back behind the houses is the ‘Married Mans Trail’ so that there was less chance of them running into people via the front street. This is the employment form for the girls she employed. Most houses along Creek st were 2 bedroom so 2-3 girls working in each house was usual.
In the early 50’s there was a big push to close down the ladies of Creek St. They came up with a few novel ideas to keep in business.
By the 1960’s the brothels in Creek St. were officially closed, but Dolly & a few other ladies were known to still entertain. Dolly lived in this house until she was in her 70’s and then went into a nursing home. There is a book written about her life. Dolly funded the building and running costs of a local orphanage for many years until it eventually closed. She also built and funded and animal shelter that still exists. When she died she was worth over a million dollars and the money was left in trust for the animal shelter and for her home to become a museum.
Heres the dining room/parlour downstairs.
The kitchen had an amazing amount of stuff in a small space.
Off the kitchen is a hallway that leads to the stairs to the second story. On the right is a bathroom under the stairs, a hidden liquor cabinet and a hidden safe in the wall. Apparently she loved cabbage roses wallpaper, this is still the original paper.
Dollys bedoom is filled with a display of her clothes and belongings.
There is a small wardrobe which is actually a hidden storage space for liquor.
There was a second smaller bedroom and a bathroom. The rose decorations at the top of these curtains are actually made from silk condoms. Dolly bought them from France but as soon as she saw them realised they were useless so she sewed them into rosettes for the bathroom curtains.
After this we walked around town a bit more then it was back to the ship for a very late lunch/early dinner – a good comedy/juggling show and then a day at sea tommorrow.