Miss Laura's Social Club and Bertha Dean

Born in Kansas in 1882, Bertha Lanthrop began her career as a prostitute around 1900. Prostitution was a way of life. First as a prostitute for Laura Zeigler at Miss Laura's Social Club, then as Laura Zeigler's successor. Bertha's life on "The Row" would last almost the full time the street was the red light district of Fort Smith and she would reside in the bordello at 123 First Street until her death in 1948.

For a perioid of time, she used the surname Jones. Either she married the man elsewhere since there are no records in the Fort Scott area, it was a common law arrangement or she simply was using the surname as a pseudonym. In records for 1915, when she was charged with being a "keeper of a hoor house of protitution,' she used the name Bertha Gale.

Sometime around 1917, Bertha married Mack Dean. A veteran of the Spanish-American War, he suffered from TB and died after 5 years of marriage. At the time of Dean's death, Bertha received letters from her sister and mother now living in California. Both tried to persuade her to leave Fort Smith and the bordello business. In her will, Bertha left the members of her family in California $1 each, stating that "they have not assisted me in anyway."

Although she had at least one other relationship, Bertha continued to use the name Dean. Jules Bartholemy lived in the brothel. His 'status' was not known, other than he did serve as a bouncer. Bertha left the land and the house to him upon her death in 1948.

Bertha Dean was a strong-willed and clever businesswoman with a very deep, loud voice. Available photos of her in the 1920's show her to be a petite woman, however over the years as she gained some weight, she was referred to as 'Big Bertha."

Life at the brothel was a combination of struggling with the police to maintain the business and fending off the financial problems of the depression. There were the boom years when, during WWII, the soldiers of Fort Chaffee found the hidden pleasures and talents at Miss Laura's Social Club. Bertha considered this a mixed "blessing." Although it brought in new clientele, it also brought in new competition as other brothels opened up on "The Row." At their height, there were about 10 "establishments" on the Row.

By the 1920s, with the completion of the Goldman Hotel and the Ward Hotel, Bertha instituted a "call girl" service. Usually a bell hop or porter would call Bertha to send a girl to the hotel for a guest. At about the same time, she started a business relationship with Sammie Peters Long, a local hairdresser. Whenever a new woman came to work at the social club, Bertha would send her over to Sammie's beauty parlor. Sammie would dye their hair, teach them how to sit and proper etiquette.

By the late 1930s, Ella Scott was Bertha's only remaining competition on the Row; the other bordellos had closed. Police pressure and economics pushed them out. As the bordellos closed the "crime syndicates" and pimps picked up the hotel business.

The 1940s brought one last upsurge in the business at 123 First Street. From Fort Chaffee, constructed in the late 1930s on the outskirts of the city, soldiers appeared again and frequented the house. But with the conclusion of World War II, fewer came. Bertha's health began to fail and in 1948, at the age of 66, she died. Perhaps it is fitting that she is buried with soldiers, the kind of men who founded Fort Smith and were her customers. Her body lies in the city's National Cemetery in section 1, plot 472 next to her husband, the Spanish-American War veteran, Mack Dean.

Miss Laura's Social Club, a house of prostitution, continues to welcome visitors to the city of Fort Smith -- today it is the Visitor's Center! Located at 123 First Street, it is the only former bordello in Arkansas listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

On the border between what was then the US and Indian Territory, Fort Smith was an Old West town that invited, or at least tolerated, prostitution. Miss Laura's was one of several bordellos established around the turn of the century.

Built in 1896 as the Riverfront Commercial Hotel, the house was bought by Laura Ziegler in 1898. Ziegler was a working prostitute on Bordello Row ("The Row") when she walked into a local bank and borrowed $3000. She purchased the building. It was one of a half-dozen other 'houses,' between the river and the railroad tracks. She renovated the building and opened it as a brothel in 1903. She repaid her loan in 17 months. She had the "classiest bordello" on the Row and one of the most selebrated in the Southwest. Cigars and brandy were offered in the sitting rooms. Her ladies were known as the healthiest and most sophisticated in Fort Smith. She required that the girls be fully dressed when going downstairs and have regular medical check ups. The results of the check ups were tacked to the girl's bedpost!

Law enforcement would enforce the laws against the running of houses of prostitution and collect the $5 fine. Once a month, Miss Laura and the other 5 madams of the Row walked to the courthouse to pay their fines. Then they went back to business. There was a little something extra in the envelope from Miss Laura's, prepaid tokens for local politicians and law enforcement officials.

In 1910, business started to drop off as more and more people in Fort Smith wanted to get rid of the Row. Five of the six bordellos were either burned to the ground or severely damaged on Jan 7, 1910, when an oil storage tank exploded. Sending the women and their customers into the street, this was known as “the night of the lingerie parade.” Miss Laura's set at the western end of the area and the flames were nearing her social club when a wind shift saved the building.

Ziegler realized that business was going to take a turn for the worse, and she sold the house to Bertha Gale Dean, one of her 'girls,' in 1911 for $47,000. Zeigler moved from the area and little is known of her after that. Bertha retained the name, Miss Laura's, and entertained its last paying customers in the early 1940s when the soldiers assigned to nearby Fort Chaffee arrived.

After the war, the area deteriorated into a slum but despite the decline, the house at 123 First Street remained open for business. Bertha Dean ran the brothel until her death in 1948. She left it to Jules Bartholemy, a man who lived and worked in the house.

Eventually abandoned, in 1963, the city announced that, unless a buyer was found, the house would be demolished. Donald Reynolds bought the house and began renovations. The building was selected in 1973 to the National Register of Historic Places; restoration began in 1983. A year later, Miss Laura’s Social Club and Restaurant opened; life as a restaurant was brief. In 1992 it was back in business doing what it did best -- welcoming visitors as the new Visitor's Center.

The interior is decorated as it would have been during Ziegler’s time, with furniture and wallpaper of the period. Each guestroom door has a transom bearing a lady’s name. A few original articles remain, including a stained-glass window.

On April 21, 1996, a tornado swept through downtown Fort Smith, ripping the roof off of Miss Laura’s. After necessary repairs, more than a century after it was built, Miss Laura’s still welcomes visitors to Fort Smith.