FOX31 (KDVR) decided to take a stroll down memory lane with a “Did you know?” piece by Maddie Rhodes about Denver’s old red-light district. The story points readers to History Colorado’s account of Market Street, near today’s Union Station and Five Points, which a century ago was known as “The Row.”
According to History Colorado, from the latter half of the 1800s into the early 1900s, Market Street between 18th and 23rd streets was the worst-kept secret in town. Sex work was not legal, but it was tolerated, and the article describes everything from high-end “parlor houses” to low-end brothels and cribs, all operating in plain sight.
The piece closes by noting that prostitution has not been legal in Colorado, but that a bill moving through the Senate could fully decriminalize it. Convenient timing, no?
The Bullet Point Brief
- Denver’s red-light district sat on Market Street between 18th and 23rd, and the article makes it sound almost quaint, like a quirky historical footnote instead of a moral and civic failure.
- History Colorado says it was “tolerated” and widely known, with women selling companionship in parlor houses, brothels, and cribs. The “worst-kept secret in town” is still a secret only to people who want to feel better about it.
- The story paints a vivid scene: piano music, gunshots, and women calling out to customers. Nothing says “community thriving” like gunfire as background ambiance.
- It contrasts the “classy” parlor houses with fine wine and dance halls, charging $30 to $100 per night, versus low-end brothels charging a quarter per hour. So yes, exploitation came in premium and economy options.
- The Row eventually faced raids, fines, and arrests under public pressure, and the article says it was effectively closed around 1914–1915, with the U.S. Army closing Market Street in 1918. Then, in the modern era, the story tees up decriminalization like we are circling back for the “sequel.”
My Bottom Line
Not long after Democrats drop SB26-097, here comes the media with the moral-relevancy softening act: “Denver used to have it. See, it’s nothing new and not that bad.” Well of course it’s nothing new. It’s the world’s oldest profession. That is not the point. We live in a fallen world, and the legalization of prostitution is that bad.
Since I started criticizing SB26-097 loudly, the libertarians have leapt into my feed with the usual cries of “liberty” and “free market.” I hear you. On plenty of issues, I lean your way. I even voted to legalize marijuana, and I wish I could have that one back. Look at what Colorado has become since then. My feed can scream “no direct correlation” until it’s blue in the face. Fine. But I know what my eyes see.
I believe in a Romans 13 style government. Government should reward what is right and punish what is wrong. Citizens should do what is right and avoid what is wrong. Simple, really. A free society is not a society that pretends every appetite is a virtue and every boundary is oppression.
And if we, collectively, cannot recognize that prostitution is wrong, then we have slid further than I have feared. This is not “history.” This is a warning.
Source: Fox 31
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