By: Erik Brosch, Nicolas Sakiyama, and Maddy Cole-Travis
Revelstoke is now considered a place filled with tons of pretty landscapes, kind citizens, and a bunch of skiers. A whole bunch of skiers..
But it wasn’t always like this. No, Revelstoke was once a very…not family-friendly town. In fact, it wasn’t even originally called Revelstoke.
Way back in the early 1900s, it was actually called Farwell. During these times Farwell was a completely different place. Crime ran rampant, drunk miners wandered the streets, and with a town populated with working men with money to spend, the inevitable scheme produced brothels and prostitutes
So, what happened to the call-girls of Revelstoke? Well, in order to find out, we need to look back about 117 years.
Front Street is a large part of all of this. It was sort of a central hub of all things criminal. The street we know now, is a sweet, riverside residential area, but during the early 1900s this entire area was considered ‘Lower Town’ and was notorious for being filled with hotels, saloons, general stores, and brothels. More than any other area in town, brothels were spread out all over the area, there were even specialty ‘houses’ for African Americans and the Japanese people living here.
Now, most of us know the reputation that ‘ladies of the evening’ get, but it wasn’t all bad. In fact, in this time, they were probably one of the more beneficial businesses in town.
Those seedy hotels were plentiful in this area. One of the more famous ones being named the Climax Hotel. Not a joke, that was a real place.
Obviously, the acts performed in a brothel weren’t legal, but it was much less profitable to jail the women. So, if caught, the local government would just fine and immediately release them. At the time, the city was almost living entirely off of the prostitution industry. (FACT CHECK!)
Brothels became a part of the culture. Now, a majority of the town was fairly content with the existence of the brothels, but a small minority had some concerns including one of the mayors of Farwell . In the 1920’, the idea of brothels becoming a societal norm was absurd to him. He feared that the provocative nature of this large sub-section of the town was unwanted, and tried to shut them down. However, rumor had it, the brothels had a molotov cocktail thrown through the window of the mayor’s home, forcing him out of town.
Eventually, the brothels began shutting down due to protests by local churches. With a town so small and the Lower Town area being rather crowded, lots brothels were in close proximity to the churches, causing a bit of turmoil. Although many prostitutes respected clergymen and church-goers, the churches looked down upon the brothels themselves. Soon, protests and petitions to City Hall amassed and the city began to shut the Red Light District down. The last brothel finally closed its doors in the mid-40’s. After the closure, the Christian-oriented Revelstoke Railway YMCA provided wholesome, fun entertainment for men, across from where The Cabin is now (also a strip club in the 1990s). One of the old ‘houses’ that had been “partially gutted” was actually set on fire and used as practice for firemen and to test the response time with their new fire truck.
As for the women who worked in the brothels, most of them were already well established in the industry, so this news hit pretty hard. Many citizens fundraised and helped the women raise their children and the town eventually moved on. Revelstoke left that reputation behind them with the closures of the districts. Churches petitioned to shut down the more decrepit bars and other drinking establishments. Later, opium dens were abolished in 1908 when Minister of Labour Mackenzie King made the possession of the drug an offence. Soon, these buildings were turned into schools, banks, and more churches, and Revelstoke found its identity as a cozy, and prostitute-less valley town.
Overall, the change was drastic, but it was what the town needed. Revelstoke is a tourists’ dream with plenty of beautiful vistas, exciting attractions, and a special kind of charm that makes one instantly feel at home. It’s polished, yes, and for those who live here , we might find it a little boring, and to an extent, that’s very true. But, at least it’s not as “exciting” as it once was.
http://www.reved.net/2016/12/brothels-opium-and-revys-original-rockstars/