Although it’s often described as the oldest profession in the world, firsthand accounts from sex workers in Mendocino are few and far between. Women often remained unidentified unless they were arrested and noted in the newspaper or mentioned in oral histories, which are vague.
Mendocino’s logging boom brought many single men to the remote coast. For entertainment, many visited the local saloons and brothels. In Mendocino, brothels were often located above saloons in the same building. Fashionable Boarding Houses, another name for brothels, were often located in private homes. Lumber companies were sometimes known to hire women to work in lumber towns to “keep their workers happy.”
One local brothel was Miss Molly Murray’s Fashionable Boarding House, located on the corner of Ukiah and Kasten streets. In 1875, Catherine Coyle bought the home for $175. She operated a saloon in the front of the building. While it’s unknown how long Catherine was in business in Mendocino, her establishment is known today because it was the location of a double murder in 1876.
Pearl Peck also ran a brothel on Ukiah Street, labeled as “Fem. Board’g” on the 1898 Sanborn Map. On April 15, 1915, the Ukiah Democrat reported that Pearl was arrested for “running a house of ill fame” and was set to appear in court two days later. She likely paid a fine, but there isn’t a record of it.
The 1930 census recorded Pearl as a single woman, still living on Ukiah Street with a boarder named Myrtle McDonald. Neither woman listed an occupation. Pearl was arrested several times for selling liquor after Mendocino’s prohibition law took effect in 1909. Once, Pearl was cited selling liquor with another rumored madame, Nan Wyrick, who owned a building occupied “by women of the demi monde” on Ukiah Street.
In Mendocino County Remembered: An Oral History, Alfred Wicks relayed his memory of a local sex worker. “There was one house of prostitution toward the cemetery where there were just two women there. I used to go to school … she used to always walk to town and the other kids used to call her ‘Big Fat Rose.’ She didn’t like that and she says I was the best kid around. She always gave me a dime or a quarter if I seen her.” These are only a few of the many histories that may never be uncovered.
Averee McNear is curator at the Kelley House Museum in Mendocino, Calif.
Men need to be medicated
I enjoy these glimpses of history. I’m curious about the line “ the location of a double murder in 1876.” What happened in that story, if known?
According to the Mendocino West Coast Star, Lena Clymer (who worked at Molly’s) and Frank Mitchell (a San Francisco actor who patronized the place) were shot down March 27, 1876. Lore has it the killer was Frank’s wife, but according to newspapers written at the time, the shooter was a man from San Francisco named Harry Kleinschmidt. His motives are unclear.
I heard a tale from an old local years ago about how the logging camps that were too far out from town for the men to visit and return in a timely manner would provide a couple of oversized barrels to supplant the ladies of the night. On Friday all the campers would draw straws and whoever drew the shortest would do his duty and climb into an empty barrel and have the top set tight. Then the bung was removed on the side and the men would line up for a few minutes, each with his fly undone in front of the bunghole, one by one. The star of every Friday would dutifully take his turn in the barrel and there was no shame from the crowd as they all knew that their own short straw might be coming and it was a community service that had great value. The barrel rider was given his own hot bath in a deep clawfoot afterwards which was an unknown event for the rest. Everyone else had to share a couple of tubs and rinse the day off with the filthy Lukewarm water of 20 others in a beat up stock tub. The perks of the camps were quirky for sure.