Grand Madames: Bowden Backs Bordellos, Wins Landslide

[Metro Jacksonville]

Grand Madames: Bowden Backs Bordellos, Wins Landslide



Recorded on the pages of JaxHistory.com is the story of the Landslide Election of JET Bowden to Mayor of Jacksonville in 1914.  Bowden, who had been Mayor at the time of the Great Fire of 1901, had also been Mayor of LaVilla prior to the first Consolidation of Greater Jacksonville.  The world famous bordellos of Ward Street had been under his protection and care, and he did not take this duty lightly.

So much so that during the Great Fire, firemen valiantly fought to save William Astor's beautiful block of buildings, and in the process ended up saving the Bordello District from flames.  People naturally drew their own conclusions as to what the firemen had hoped to rescue after the flames and only after a full investigation was it concluded that the Fire chief had acted properly in defense of the city.

Cora Crane, would build her famous establishment The Court that same year.

But after the Great Fire an invasion of yankee carpetbaggers brought with them Temperence sentiment and racial segregation, leading to a move to shut down Ward Street.  In 1914, the old mayor, confined to a wheelchair gamely decided to run on a platform of reopening them.  What follows is his actual platform statement:

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-aug-grand-madames-bowden-backs-bordellos-wins-landslide

[fieldafm]

"And that's when the whores came in, laying their trick money down.  $100 for rent?  Why not spend it on the whores!"

[DeadGirlsDontDance]

We must re-establish the legal bordellos at once, or Lieutenant Commander Data's brave journey back in time will all have been for nothing, and the Romulans will destroy us all!

[BridgeTroll]

my proposition is to govern this City in a business like manner,

Someone else said this.... who?  Is it deja vu?

[uptowngirl]

I love these stories Stephen-keep them coming!

[fieldafm]

I was reading my family's geneology book and uncovered that my great, great aunt had a boarding house near where I think Cora Crane's bordello was.  Stephen, do you have a rough idea of where exactly all of the bigger bordellos were located?  Im trying to see where her house was in relation.  I think it was smack dab in the middle of all the brewhaha, which naturally leads me to several other questions lol.

[fieldafm]

Sweet.  Thanks a lot!  Are you going to have a map detailing the known 'hotspots' in this article?