The West Old & New Vol. III Issue I January 2014 | Page 4

The Dumas Brothel
Butte, Montana
First came the miners to work in the mine, then came the ladies
to live on the line."
Quote from Copper Camp - Writers Project of Montana

The Dumas is an historic American brothel built that served the predominately
male population which grew out of Butte's mining boom. It operated illegally for 92
years from 1890 to 1982, making it America's longest running house of "ill repute".
The Dumas is the last vestige of Butte's Red-Light district, maintaining its authenticity as a true 19th century brothel.
Ellen Baumier, Ph.D., National Register of Historic Places Sign Program Coordinator, noted “It is of national significance for its associations with labor, mining,
immigrant groups and social history. Butte prided itself on its reputation as "the most
wide open town in the wide open West." Hundreds of saloons, open gambling and a
teeming red light district confirmed its renown. Butte's legendary red light district
once supported as many as a thousand women who worked in tiny alley cribs, in the
streets, in glamorous parlor houses and in scores of brothels. Many have commented
on Butte's red light district, among them Charlie Chaplin who, in My Autobiography,
describes the women of the district as some of the most beautiful in the world. The
Dumas, however, is not only significant as the last standing parlor house in this area
of Butte, but also because of its length of operation and as a rare, intact commentary
on social history. Indeed, the Dumas is a unique, tangible archive of social history.
The building's extremely fragile, in dire need of stabilization and repair. It is an intrinsic and essential the American West where prostitution was a component of
nearly every frontier community.”
The exterior of the Dumas on Mercury Street.
The Dumas was designed and built as a brothel in 1890 and remained active as
such until 1982, making it America's longest running house of prostitution. It was the first two-story brick structure built in Butte's
famous Red Light District along Mercury Street. Ironically, the Dumas is also the last intact 'survivor' of an area where vice
thrived and women worked hard, lived hard, and sometimes died hard.
In the early 1970's, the Dumas Brothel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as an "active bordello." It is the
last known example of the 'Victorian Brothelese' style architecture remaining in the United States today. The building is very
nearly intact from when it was built at the turn of the 20th century. With the exception of some lowered ceilings and paneling from
the 1970's, very few architectural changes have occurred at the Dumas.
The first owners of the Dumas were the French Canadians Arthur and Joseph Nadeau. Joseph emigrated to the United States in
1868, and in 1878, married Delia, also of French Canadian descent. They arrived at Butte in 1879. Ownership of the Dumas was
listed in Delia's name to avoid conflicts with the Nadeau
Company's more "legitimate" ventures. From 1888 until
1900, Joseph Nadeau was proprietor of the Windsor Hotel
and Restaurant at 13 E. Broadway, in the heart of the more
respectable business district. Just a few blocks south of this
enterprise, lay the Red Light District, which by 1890, had
been established along Mercury and Galena Streets, east of
Main and West of Arizona streets.
The Nadeaus created the Nadeau Investment Company and
by 1922 owned several building in the Red Light District,
including the Copper Block, a large brick saloon and hotel,
which provided living quarters for area prostitutes, gamblers and others of questionable reputations. The Copper
Block, on the corner of Galena and Wyoming streets, just
north and east of the Dumas, was demolished in the early
1990's.
Upstairs area of the Dumas

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