Forth time is a charm. Storyville, which is bounded by Rue Iberville, Iberville, Basin, St. Louis, and N. Robertson streets, was located next to two major transportation focal points in the city: The turning basin at the end of the Carondelet Canal, and the tracks leading to the Southern Railway’s Canal Street terminal. With transportation, trade, and commerce nearby, it was only natural that entrepreneurs would offer adult entertainment in the form of prostitution nearby. Brothels, ranging from inexpensive rooms (“cribs”) to elegant homes, began to appear. By 1897, a New Orleans alterman named Sidney Story proposed to define a specific red-light district for New Orleans, similar to those in port cities such as Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Prostitution was to be legalized, and the brothels in this district were to be monitored, and prostitution was discouraged in neighborhoods outside the defined district. Story received the dubious honor of having the red-light di...
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