Home of a trigger-happy madam
Among the prominent madams of the Barbary Coast, as the city’s former red-light district was known in the 19th century, was Ah Toy, a beautiful and expensive Chinese courtesan. She was intelligent and direct—and ran a slave trade. Then there was Mary Ellen Pleasant, an African-American woman known as the Voodoo Queen, who operated a cathouse, married a wealthy banker, and became one of America’s first civil rights crusaders.
Another infamous madam was “Belle,” who was the mistress of a local gambler, Charles Cora. One night in 1855, he took her to the theater, and sitting in front of them was a U.S. marshal who pronounced Belle’s presence offensive. Cora refused to leave and three days later shot the marshal dead. A trial resulted in a hung jury, which caused an uproar fueled by a yellow journalist named James King. When King was murdered by a local politician, the notorious Committee of Vigilance of 1856 was created to restore justice. Their first act was to hang both King’s killer and Cora, who married Belle in jail shortly before being executed.
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Address 535 Powell St, San Francisco, CA, 94108 | Public Transport Cable car: Powell/Mason, Powell/Hyde (Powell St & Sutter St stop) | Tip If you’re in the mood for theater, try the TIX half-price ticket booth on Union Square plaza. They sell same-day tickets to plays and shows in the nearby theater district.
But the most legendary and successful madam of the period was Tessie Wall (1869–1932), an Irish-Catholic girl with blue eyes, blond hair, and an ironic smile, who could drink a man under the table. Her first husband, a fireman, died, leaving her with a child and no money. Eventually, she opened a high-class bordello and married a political boss named Frank Daroux. Their home was at 535 Powell Street, a three-story mansion that Tessie filled with the expensive antique furnishings she was known to collect. When Daroux ordered her to quit her extremely lucrative business she refused. He filed for divorce and took up with another woman; she shot him, three times. He survived, but declined to press charges; she got off scot-free. When the cops asked Tessie why she did it, she’s said to have replied, “I shot him ’cause I love him, damn him!”
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