“Ceased to Exist” – Red Lights Turned Out – 1917
Red Lights Turned Out
Restricted District Closed Without Trouble; Inmates Leaving.
Missoula’s “line” ceased to exist at 12:01 o’clock this morning. The demise was quiet. The police were on hand to see that the suicide sentence imposed a month ago by a concert of county and city authorities was carried out, but they weren’t needed. Most of the women had packed their belongings and decamped during the day. Those who remained locked their doors at midnight. They will leave today.
No disturbances accompanied the final closing of the restricted district. The shut-down was accomplished, so to speak, without any fanfare of strumpets. Whatever mourners this double-crossing of the bar may have made, kept themselves out of sight and hearing.
Only once before has the district been dark. The previous experiment was disastrous.
City and county officials are determined, however, to make the present closing permanent. They acted nearly a month ago, after Attorney General S. C. Ford had announced his intention of proceeding legally over the heads of local officials not enforcing state laws forbidding the conduct of houses of prostitution.
The restricted district at the time the closing order was issued, had shrunk from a two-street size to a single block on West Front street. Today the street’s deportment is unquestionable for the first time since 1892, when it became frankly a vice district.
The article above appeared in The Daily Missoulian on February 1, 1917.
Missoula’s mayor at that time was H. T. Wilkinson. City Attorney was John L. ‘Jack’ Campbell.
The mayor was scheduled the following day as the guest of honor at a meeting of the Missoula Woman’s Club. He will talk “informally” on local issues now “paramount.”
The Bijou Theater ran the following ad in today’s newspaper:
FOUR SHOWS
The management of the Bijou theater announces the “All-Girl Revue of 1917” as Sunday’s attraction at the Main-street house. On account of the large audiences expected, there will be four performances; a matinee at 2:30 in the afternoon, with evening shows at 6:45; 8:10; 9:20.