Legends of the Langham, revisited
by Greg Nesteroff - Nelson Star
posted Jan 26, 2015 at 1:00 AM
To date this series on the early years of Kaslo’s Langham Cultural Centre has looked at
when it was built (1896-97),
who built it (Charles J. Kapps),
what became of him (married twice, moved to Spokane, ran an investment company),
who he sold it to (surveyor A.R. Heyland and land agent A.J. Curle),
what it was used for (bank, bottling works, rooming house, offices), and
its role in the Japanese Canadian internment.
These things can be pinned down with a fair degree of certainty. But other bits — folklore, really — might never be satisfactorily resolved.
1. Was the Langham ever a brothel?
According to Kaslo: The First 100 Years, published in 1993, “the upper floors were rumored to have been bases of operation for ladies of easy virtue.”
It’s hard to verify or debunk this statement, which seems like sort of thing that could be said of any old building to spice up its history. In his book Ladies of Easy Virtue of West Kootenay, the late Ken Morrow said the rumor the Langham was once a brothel is untrue, but didn’t explain how he reached that conclusion.
Kaslo’s red light district was centered around Third Street and A Avenue, two blocks from the Langham. It was also on A Avenue that the Theatre Comique stood, a combination variety theatre and bar where waitresses known as box rustlers preyed on thirsty miners. They may or may not have been prostitutes, but their morality was certainly questioned.
One longtime Kaslo madame, Maggie Clifton, was mentioned in the Nelson Tribune of June 19, 1897 as laying a complaint of abusive language against Alice Merchant, who was fined $20 “for the too free use of her tongue.”
Clifton turns up on the 1901 census as a “lodging house keeper,” although the exact location of her brothel is unknown. Her staff included Jennie St. Clair, musician; Marjorie Adams and Clara Johnson, dressmakers, and Dorothy Stewart, chambermaid. These professions might have been euphemisms, or they could have been ways the women supplemented their incomes. Nearby, another lodging house keeper, Nellie Howard, lived with dressmaker Helen DeVille.
There was less prevarication on the 1911 census, which listed prostitutes as “inmates.” At this time Clifton’s brothel was home to Mary Cooper, Rose Billington, May Jennings, Ollie Abbott, Mary Kamuri, and Martha Tighe. Nearby was the brothel of Molly Brown. Jean Brown, possibly her sister, was the only other woman working there.
A walking tour on the Kaslo Chamber of Commerce’s website suggests Molly built the house at 312 Third Street, “the last remaining of the original bawdy houses located in this area.” Molly also had a brothel in Sandon, which has been restored.
No prostitutes are obvious in Kaslo on the 1921 census, although Morrow’s book says Brown lived there until her death in 1948. The BC vital events index has no record of her passing, although that may not have been her real name.
[Read on to find out about the longest bar in the world and the haunting of the Langham.]
From the Nelson Star