Dumas Hotel - Butte, MT - Roadside Attractions on Waymarking.com

The Dumas is an historic American brothel built during the Victorian era in 1890, in what can only be described as brothel style architecture. The Dumas has (42) rooms, each with a distinct layout and purpose, and nearly all are intact as originally designed. Rooms range from posh suites and grand parlors, to bare-bone “cribs” -tiny rooms with space only for a bed and scarce amenities… Clandestine tunnels connected the Red-Light district to Butte’s business corridor allowing clients & working girls to escape the area in the event of a police raid.

Until the mid 1980’s, the sole purpose of the Dumas was to serve the predominately male population that grew out of Butte’s mining boom. The “official” story is that the Dumas operated “illegally for 92 years from 1890 to 1982,” although rumor says it was still in operation through the mid-late 1990’s. Nevertheless, the Dumas is the longest running house of “ill repute” in America. The Dumas is truly the last vestige of Butte’s Red-Light district, and its authenticity as a true 19th Century brothel is unmatched anywhere in the U.S.

In 1943, the underground & alley cribs were sealed off, remaining closed until the mid 1990’s. These areas are now open, and are part of the Dumas Museum… In the 1970’s, the Dumas was listed on the National Register of Historic Places where it remains today as an active “bordello”.
From Visit Montana

DUMAS HOTEL
French Canadian brothers Arthur and Joseph Nadeau built this house of prostitution in 1890. Reflecting the architecture of the trade, each room features a door and window so customers could “shop.” In 1900, when Grace McGinnis was madam, the Dumas was in the heart of the red-light district, an area roughly two blocks square and crowded with saloons and gambling halls. Prostitutes worked everywhere from squalid alley “cribs” to high class “parlor houses” such as the Dumas. Prostitution, although never legal in Butte, was tolerated as a necessity for miners and “gentlemen” alike. The district faded as years passed, but women at the Dumas serviced customers until 1982.
From the NRHP plaque at the building