According to the wage study conducted by Hull House women in the early 1900s, 488 State was the brothel closest to what is now the Papermaker’s Garden at the intersection of 8th and Wabash. 

Though it was unclear to the Hull House workers how much prostitutes made in the Dearborn Station area known as “The Levee,” they knew they made less than $5 a week, less than even the lowest paid worker there. 

The only record of the thousands of women who worked in these brothels is Chicago historical homicide database. There are three from the Dearborn Station area listed. We honored them with Velvet Queen sunflowers.

Minnie Brooks, madam of 446 Dearborn, fatally stabbed. Murderer arrested. Callie Grant, fatally cut in a fight with another woman, who got three years. Nellie Scully, fatally shot. Husband acquitted of charges.