Springfield Bawdy Houses

In my book Wicked Springfield (MO), I discussed various vices in the city, including prostitution, but the book only covered up through the 1910s. It left off about the time Prohibition took effect, because the new law caused a noticeable drop off in vice in general, not just in alcohol-related offenses.

The lifting of Prohibition in the early 1930s, however, ushered in a new era, and vice, especially prostitution, once again flourished in Springfield. I probably shouldn't use the word "flourish," because Springfield has never been exactly a hotbed of crime, certainly not in the nineteenth century or first half of the twentieth century. But prostitution did revive somewhat in the post-Prohibition era. 

In January of 1942, for instance a husband wife were charged with keeping a bawdy house at the hotel they ran at 427 1/2 S. Campbell. Another couple was charged with a similar offense in conjunction with a hotel they ran at 406 1/2 W. Walnut. Yet another couple were charged with keeping a bawdy house at their hotel at 407 1/2 S. Campbell, and a fourth woman was charged with running a bawdy house out of her hotel at 404 1/2 W. Walnut. 

All of these hotels were in the same immediate vicinity (on or near Campbell Street from two or three blocks south of College to two or three blocks north of College). This was only a few blocks from the railroad depot on North Main, and most of the hotel customers probably were travelers arriving at the depot who wanted a place to stay (and be entertained at the same time). At least this was the case during the aughts and teens, decades I researched and wrote about in Wicked Springfield. 

In early February 1942, yet another couple were charged with running a bawdy house at their hotel at 423 1/2 S. Campbell. About the same time a man named Johnson was convicted of receiving part of the funds from two prostitutes who operated out of his rooming house at 214 1/2 S. Campbell. He was sentenced to ten years in prison, later reduced to five years.

The stiff sentence didn't put much of a damper on prostitution in Springfield, because it continued pretty much unabated over the next couple of years. Mrs. Johnson, for one, took up right where her husband had left off.

Finally, in mid-1944 Springfield police chief Warren Hayes decided to claim down on "the oldest profession." He proposed raising the maximum fine for violating certain ordinances, including keeping a bawdy house, to $500. The proposed law would levy a fine varying from $100 to $500 on anyone "keeping a bawdy house, displaying a sign of honest occupation as a screen for a bawdy house, renting a room to a man and woman knowing they are not man and wife, keeping or permitting a female under 18 to remain in an establishment which is used as a bawdy house."

The penalty for prostitutes loitering in a public place was to be raised to a minimum of $5 and a maximum of $300. Soliciting could cost them from $25 to $300. 

Apparently, the new laws and a determined effort by the police chief did have some effect in curbing prostitution in Springfield, if the number of times terms like "bawdy house" appeared in Springfield newspapers over the next few years is any indication. Or maybe it just went farther underground.