The highlight of our walk around Ketchkian was Creek Street and Dolly’s House, home of one of Ketchikan’s famous ladies of the evening. Creek Street is surely one of the most picturesque streets in North America with its colorful wooden buildings perches on stilts above a roiling creek. Dolly’s House is the building on the right.

I love the Alaskan sense of humor, as you can see in this sign about spawning.

Jann and I couldn’t resist a visit to a brothel museum, though it wasn’t quite what I imagined. Dolly Arthur moved to Ketchikan in 1919 and set up shop on Creek Street, keeping her liquor hidden in a secret closet during prohibition.

For one thing, Dolly was a sole proprietor, not a madam, so the house was fairly small and more like a normal home, except for some of the decorating. I refer specifically to the shower curtain decorated with condoms.

In the early days, prostitution was legal, or you wouldn’t see a sign like this one! Apparently the brothels operated until the later 1950’s.

For $5.00 you can buy a copy of Dolly’s House, an e-book based on interviews with Dolly before her death. Or if you have Kindle Unlimited, you can borrow and read it for free. Apparently Dolly was quite the character and she lived to the ripe old age of 87! We should all live so long.

Linda