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INTRODUCTION
My name is Rudy Giecek. I purchased the Dumas Brothel, with its
magnificent Victorian (Brotheleze) architecture, from Butte’s last madam,
Ruby Garrett, in the fall of 1990, one hundred years after it was designed
and built, as Butte, Montana’s first three level brothel.
Many more elaborate brothels were constructed after the Dumas in
the area bordered by Main, Galena, Wyoming and Mercury Streets. This area
became known as the Tenderloin District and was one of the largest red
light districts in the United States. The Dumas is the last intact example
of this type of architecture left in America. The red brick alley behind
the Dumas ran the entire length of the red light district. It was lined
on both sides with small working rooms known as cribs. It is called Venus
Alley.
All that remains now of this once glorious Mecca of prostitution
are the red bricks, a few cribs, the Dumas brothel and a few stories.
It was while reading one of these stories in the form of a partial
diary found in the cribs under the Dumas, that the inspiration for the
novel “Venus Alley” came to me. Little did I know at the time that this
inspiration was coming to me from a ghost! The ghost of Madam Elinore Knott.
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