Red Light District a Big Draw in Town's Early Days

In the late 1800s, thousands of loggers, miners, sailors and ranchers flocked to Petaluma to find work and invest their hard earned money in land or a business. Most had left their wives and families behind in the East and planned to bring them out later. So in the meanwhile, they frequented saloons to find ‘ladies of the night' to pass the time. Many of these houses were located right here in our downtown, including the upstairs portion of the Lan Mart building, where Brixx and Old Chicago Pizza are today, as well as upstairs over what is now Graziano's Ristorante. Prostitution was a thriving industry in the early days of California and the men, who had no place to spend their gold, actively sought it out. Early on, the “girls” had set up shop in tents in the gold fields and worked the gold country saloons, as well. They offered sex, of course, but also, companionship. When small towns, such as Petaluma developed, the ratio of saloons to other businesses was large. In the Petaluma of 1885, there were 17 saloons, several of which provided extra services from women who would become dubbed “the fallen angels.” In 1900, Petaluma’s first telephone was installed in The Herold Drug Company on Kentucky Street. The second phone installed was for the Fire Department and the third? In the “House,” a brothel at the end of C Street, where phone operators allowed the girls to call out for free because they felt sorry for them...more