Mary Hall's Walls Whisper, A Bawdy House Madam's War, Washington D.C.

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
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A stroll away from the Botanical Gardens, a few blocks from Armory Square Hospital, Smithsonian towering a carriage ride away, who knew an opulent bawdy house would be another landmark in LoC's city scape from April, 1865?

No secret, war time Washington D.C. is a ' thing ' for me. What began as a ' what were their lives like? ' became 100 informational rabbit holes. Endless. Grgrandmother was born smack in the middle of the war, across the street from the Capitol in a public house/hospital, Casparis. Rabbit hole in itself- Lincoln bowled there. Grgrgrandparents ' kept ' Casparis.

We hear a lot about ' soiled doves ', women driven to work providing er, entertainment for men. At the time of the war, 500 bawdy house operated in D.C.. Smithsonian Magazine pursued a dig of a site which turned out to be one of the more famous or probably infamous houses of ill repute. Variously calling herself Mrs. or Miss Mary Hall, we can actually see her establishment in one of the city scapes from 1865, handy on LoC. Only a few buildings tower above the collection of one and two story homes scattered along this street. There's a reason hers is one. War time profits must been incredible.

The archeological dig brought to light countless champagne corks, bones from steak dinners, remains of imported fruit, women's toiletries, porcelain shards. You can glimpse a night in the life of Mary Ann Hall's brothel.

Mary Hall made the papers on a fairly regular basis- then her trial enthralled an entire city.

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" Reported to have seen hacks outside the house ". I'm smitted by the fact this photographer seems to have captured one. Not the wagon rounding the corner- there's something ' parked ' out front. This is Mary Hall's bawdy house. Census records also show the shacks and cottages surrounding Mary Hall's were inhabited by young, single wome. This might be more of a bawdy house complex, a commercial center as it were.

Evidence of lavish decor was found in the archeological dig. By all appearance this had been a posh, luxurious dwelling. Census records show it to be the declared home of only 4 women- seem to have been quite a few more. Despite the following story and scandal Mary Halls' establishment continued a brisk trade for a few years post war. You can see why business would have been affected- the war ended.

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With the Naval Yard yet another towering structure visible in the city scape, unsurprising.
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" To take away a colonel ", oops. What's interesting is women's names were published, never their customers. ' Handsomely furnished ', relics of which were found in Smithsonian's dig. It's a little crazy to see the Smithsonian looming over the story it would uncover 150 years later.
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Adjoining dwellings were occupied by single women, according to census records.

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Love the careful ' transacting the business they were on ( in relation to a watch ) '.

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Predictable results from the trial, guilty although it looks as if no jail terms. Business is business. I can't tell whether Mary Hall's had been busted for prostitution OR various reports her girls included quite a few ' Sesesh ' who'd taken to driving in an open carriage singing Southern songs and loudly declaring their loyalties. She's been portrayed as kind of romantic figure, opulent, affluent and could blend in with the snottiest of society. Not so sure. Era descriptions argue current thought but why let Mary Halls get in the way of well, Mary Hall?

Whoever she was, it's a little fascinating seeing her home before it was just artifacts dug up 150 years later. If walls could talk, a house smack in the middle of a war, smack in the middle of a city whose military population was enormous could tell stories maybe we'd rather not hear.
 
This is pretty fascinating. I'm curious about a couple of the structures. There is a dark, round structure about 1 and1/2 stories or 2 stories high mixed in with the frame houses near the brothel. Another very similar building can be seen more easily on the near side of the bridge or elevated street in a wider view. These are nearly identical structures and they have very large "footprints." Can anyone tell me what they are?
 
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This is pretty fascinating. I'm curious about a couple of the structures. There is a dark, round structure about 1 and1/2 stories or 2 stories high mixed in with the frame houses near the brothel. Another very similar building can be seen more easily on the near side of the bridge or elevated street in a wider view. These are nearly identical structures and they have very large "footprints." Can anyone tell me what they are?


I got distracted by that too. The rendering depicts it as round, seems more oval? This wasn't a sterling neighborhood despite Hall's elegant establishment, may have been something unwelcome in another neighborhood.

I know the myth is Washington was literally built on a swamp- it really wasn't, just awfully poor management made it frequently soggy. You read about this veritable war over civic authorities not doing enough about water, too much or too little. Water tank? I can't think of anything else that would be so enclosed and why round/oval if it wasn't water?

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RUTH WAS HER MOTTO


HER CREED, CHARITY FOR ALL


DAWN IS COMING


This makes me even more interested in her. That's a wonderful link, thank you! " Her Creed, Charity For All " draws a dieeper picture of her. What may have been her defining characteristic could be lost behind the title ' Brothel Keeper ", you know? Extreme poverty, a Dickensian portrait in our cities gets forgotten. War compounded this, displacing women and children, depriving them of the traditional bread winner, making them even more vulnerable. A lot turned to prostitution in desperation. No one ever said " I want to be a prostitute when I grow up ", IMO it's always desperation. Mary Hall may have scooped up homeless and helpless, not necessarily for profit.

Of course she made the papers quite a bit.
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This one might be more interesting than we think. DC was a Southern city, really. War caused a huge exodus South, surprisingly quite a few ' Sesesh ' stayed there ' unmolested ' unless they became too vocal. Heck, it was still such a Southern city that black civilians could be stopped on the streets, arrested and thrown in jail if they had no papers proving who they were. THEN anyone who claimed they ' owned ' them could come take them away! Someone brought this to Seward's attention, blew his cork and put a stop to the practice.

Anyway, the girls in this article could have been born in DC.
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Read somewhere Provost just hated these duties. You could imagine. Angry women.
 
This makes me even more interested in her. That's a wonderful link, thank you! " Her Creed, Charity For All " draws a dieeper picture of her. What may have been her defining characteristic could be lost behind the title ' Brothel Keeper ", you know? Extreme poverty, a Dickensian portrait in our cities gets forgotten. War compounded this, displacing women and children, depriving them of the traditional bread winner, making them even more vulnerable. A lot turned to prostitution in desperation. No one ever said " I want to be a prostitute when I grow up ", IMO it's always desperation. Mary Hall may have scooped up homeless and helpless, not necessarily for profit.

Of course she made the papers quite a bit.
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This one might be more interesting than we think. DC was a Southern city, really. War caused a huge exodus South, surprisingly quite a few ' Sesesh ' stayed there ' unmolested ' unless they became too vocal. Heck, it was still such a Southern city that black civilians could be stopped on the streets, arrested and thrown in jail if they had no papers proving who they were. THEN anyone who claimed they ' owned ' them could come take them away! Someone brought this to Seward's attention, blew his cork and put a stop to the practice.

Anyway, the girls in this article could have been born in DC.
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Read somewhere Provost just hated these duties. You could imagine. Angry women.
This second story is really pretty amusing. I'm not sure ALL the Provost Marshals hated this sort of duty, though. I'm basing that on the track record of so many of them in Missouri, where there was a lot of corruption among Provosts. I can well imagine some in cities looking forward to arresting a few of the "fallen angels" so they could arrange a trade instead of a fine--maybe a trade and then a reduced fine, which the Provost then pocketed.
 
This second story is really pretty amusing. I'm not sure ALL the Provost Marshals hated this sort of duty, though. I'm basing that on the track record of so many of them in Missouri, where there was a lot of corruption among Provosts. I can well imagine some in cities looking forward to arresting a few of the "fallen angels" so they could arrange a trade instead of a fine--maybe a trade and then a reduced fine, which the Provost then pocketed.


THAT is an excellent point. From descriptions of Mary Hall's, an awful lot of influential military men saw the inside of that place. You'd have to guess arrests were at least discouraged inside the military. What's a poor Provost to do? I'd originally been thinking of some fall-down funny accounts about what happened when female spies were arrested, and how much men hated the assignment guarding Rose Greenhow's house. I understand women weren't considered equal 150 years ago, you'd never know it if that was your single source of information. Entertaining stuff, warding off very angry women.

OH GOOD LORD. Just hit me, grgrgrandfather's company, of the 6th US Cavalry detached for a few months as Provost in D.C. . I've always wondered what that would have been like....
 
I wonder if Ms. Hall is the archetype for the “Madam with a heart of gold”. For all of the “modesty” of the Victorians, I am always surprised at the amount of ****ographic stereo opticon slides as well as plain old photographs. Which lead me to wonder if there were nude carte de vist for those “in the trade”?
 
I got distracted by that too. The rendering depicts it as round, seems more oval? This wasn't a sterling neighborhood despite Hall's elegant establishment, may have been something unwelcome in another neighborhood.

I know the myth is Washington was literally built on a swamp- it really wasn't, just awfully poor management made it frequently soggy. You read about this veritable war over civic authorities not doing enough about water, too much or too little. Water tank? I can't think of anything else that would be so enclosed and why round/oval if it wasn't water?

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@Patrick H Here is an article from a blog I stumbled on that is about Mary Hall and the surrounding area. A few pictures down in the blog, there is a layout of the homes and roads listed. It looks as if this round thing was a 'gas holder' according to that photo. Later on in the blog post, the blog author states that this is a storage tank for Washington Gas Light Company. Mysterious round thing solved?

Blog article: http://allenbrowne.blogspot.com/2012/02/mary-hall-madam-on-mall.html
 
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I wonder if Ms. Hall is the archetype for the “Madam with a heart of gold”. For all of the “modesty” of the Victorians, I am always surprised at the amount of ****ographic stereo opticon slides as well as plain old photographs. Which lead me to wonder if there were nude carte de vist for those “in the trade”?

You know, I'm beginning to think the whole over-done modesty thing is yet another myth we've foisted on our ancestors? Even Queen Victoria just wasn't- her descriptions of Albert are hysterically er, warm. Ever browse era ads, too? I don't know when we rocketed backwards- that kind of freedom to discuss everything from venereal disease to er, bosums to child birth wasn't around when I was a kid. It's really only fairly recently the same kind of ads have been allowed to make you squirm, watching them on TV.

Wish @Belle Montgomery was around again. Gosh she made me laugh- you get the idea she really was sent here through time, you know? No messing around, just the facts, ma'am.

What's that old cliché? "A prostitute with a heart of gold."

The more I read of her the more this makes sense. Era society sounds as if ladder climbing was a vicious business ( although 2020 doesn't seem a lot better ), people anxious to leave ' common ' roots behind them when they'd made their pile. Mary Hall could have climbed anywhere she wanted- cash is cash, you know? ( also still true ). Sounds like she never tried to leave anything or anyone behind. Love to know more of her.
 
You know, I'm beginning to think the whole over-done modesty thing is yet another myth we've foisted on our ancestors? Even Queen Victoria just wasn't- her descriptions of Albert are hysterically er, warm. Ever browse era ads, too? I don't know when we rocketed backwards- that kind of freedom to discuss everything from venereal disease to er, bosums to child birth wasn't around when I was a kid. It's really only fairly recently the same kind of ads have been allowed to make you squirm, watching them on TV.

Wish @Belle Montgomery was around again. Gosh she made me laugh- you get the idea she really was sent here through time, you know? No messing around, just the facts, ma'am.



The more I read of her the more this makes sense. Era society sounds as if ladder climbing was a vicious business ( although 2020 doesn't seem a lot better ), people anxious to leave ' common ' roots behind them when they'd made their pile. Mary Hall could have climbed anywhere she wanted- cash is cash, you know? ( also still true ). Sounds like she never tried to leave anything or anyone behind. Love to know more of her.

Aw thank you @JPK Huson 1863! I've been really busy lately including making time to finally complete my "period" dollhouse (sure wish I could shrink myself down to live in it ) but I'm back albeit in spurts for now. :wink:
 
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