Hidden Treasures

Cross-Country Trip, Day 8

Fort Smith, Arkansas

Today is our one-week anniversary of the trip, although it's the eighth day that we've been traveling.    In the week since we left Los Angeles, we've passed through almost 2,000 miles, a handful of national parks, a couple of state capitols, countless small towns, and a lot of stories.

Fort Smith, Arkansas was supposed to be a waystation, a place to spend the night before moving on the next day.  Instead, we spent the day poking around this charming little town proud of its history and character.  In the Civil War era, this town was so full of lawlessness that the most number of U.S. Marshals died in the line of duty here than anywhere else in America.   The main drag still has a very old West feel to its architecture with its wide boulevard and brick facades.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a decent picture to give you an idea so I'll just have to use someone else's.   It's a better shot than I could have taken anyway because I wasn't about to stand in the middle of the road no matter how much I love you guys.

Some of the architecture is a little New Orleans-ish, like this little number.  At one time over 50 saloons lined the main drag, and it's not hard to believe.    

Fort Smith has an extraordinary number of consignment shops and possibly the cheapest meter parking in America.  Can you remember when you only paid 25 cents an hour to park? 

And yet, we still got a ticket!!!  We lingered too long in a store and came out to find this on our windshield.   But it wasn't too bad -- $5 if paid within 24 hours.  The collection box was attached to the meter so we put our money in the envelope and dropped it in the box.   In LA, it costs $5 to valet park at the CVS and $68 for a parking ticket.  So I think we got a bargain.    

The Fort Smith Visitor's Center is housed in this building that was once a brothel, which has seen glory days as well as neglect and ruin, as recently as the 1990s, when a tornado blew the roof off and a storm dumped 5 inches (or was it 5 feet?) of rain into the house.

Stepping into the house was like stepping back in time.  The whole house has been thoroughly and lovingly renovated with period furniture and as much recreation of detail as possible.  For example, in this picture of the parlor where men played cards and socialized, the wallpaper has been custom-made by a manufacturer in England to reflect the exact design and color that was found buried under layers of plaster.  I love me some renovation so I got a kick out of finding out the lengths to which the City went to stay true to the house's origin and history.

I also love me some real estate so I found the financial details interesting too.  The house and land were purchased for $500 in the late 1800s by Miss Laura, a former "working girl" who had made good and become a madam.  She borrowed about $3,000 from a local bank to fix it up and make it into a brothel.  Less than 10 years later, she sold the property and business for $47,000 to one of her former working girls, Big Bertha, pictured here.  You can see how she got her nickname.

Miss Laura's Social Club was located on Bordello Row, which included one owned by Pearl Starr, daughter of Belle Starr, a female outlaw known as the Bandit Queen.  But Miss Laura's was the most expensive of the lot, charging $3 per visit compared to the buck charged by the others.    Legend has it that when they had a good week, Miss Laura filled the 800-pound cast-iron bathtub with champagne for the girls.  Just like Cathouse on HBO documenting the life of the girls at the Moonlite Bunny Ranch in Nevada (What, you don't watch that show?), Miss Laura's "working girls" were good friends who socialized together when they had time off.

Miss Laura's "working girls"

     

It's interesting to note how well-dressed the girls were and how much was left to the imagination.  In fact, the staircase leading from the parlor to the private rooms upstairs has very low risers because it was inappropriate for a lady to show her ankles so the steps are low enough to allow a woman to climb them without revealing any skin.  Of course, when they got to the bedroom, it was a different story.  Here's an example of what one of the rooms would have looked like back then.  Well, except for the mannequin.  I don't think she would have been in the room when it was in use.  

And here's one of the four pieces of furniture original to the house.  Some people go through a lot of trouble to get a piece of furniture to look aged like this when all they have to do is leave it sitting in a brothel for 100 years.

The house was abandoned in the 1940s, then purchased by a local businessman, placed on the National Historic Register in the 1970s, and finally restored by the City in the 1990s.  The house has a collection of artifacts salvaged from the renovations and from locals that reveal a glimpse of what life was like back then.  Some common household items look more like torture instruments, and probably hurt like hell.  

And some things just made for a good picture, like these poker chips and war ration tokens.    

This is what Good Housekeeping magazine looked like in October 1905.  (By the way, did you know if you clicked on the picture, you'll see a bigger clearer version?  I'll bet you're kicking yourself right now or swearing at me for not telling you sooner.) 

Here's a picture I found particularly interesting because the woman looks genuinely happy, unlike most pictures of that era when people are stiff and posed.  They're at a swimming hole of some sort and she's revealing a lot of skin so this must have been a very private moment and the photographer must have been very trustworthy.   Did she have a good week at Miss Laura's?  Was she happy to be away from work?  And who's the woman in the background?  We'll never know.  

But we do know who these girls are and they are VERY happy to be away from work and traveling across the country.