A "Notorious" Woman
This file appears in: The Reservation
Some women, such as Mollie Adams, acquired immense wealth in the Reservation. Adams began working for a madam at the age of thirteen but possessed her own bordello within years. She amassed enough money to commission the renowned Waco architectural firm Scott & Pearson to design a lavish house for her on Second Street, and once paid an artist $500 to paint this portrait of her while on a trip to New York.
This file appears in: The Reservation
The Reservation
Though not uncommon to late nineteenth-and early twentieth-century cities, red-light districts were regarded as areas of ill repute where madams and prostitutes worked outside the law. Yet in 1889, Waco—a city lauded for its multitude of educational…