Creek Street (Ketchikan, Alaska)

Creek Street is a historic area of Ketchikan, Alaska. The street is actually a boardwalk mounted in stilts on a high slope on the east side of Ketchikan Creek, east of the city's downtown. Creek Street was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2014.[1]

Creek Street Historic District
View of Creek Street
Creek Street (Ketchikan, Alaska) is located in Alaska
Creek Street (Ketchikan, Alaska)
LocationCreek Street, Married Man's Trail and Totem Way, Ketchikan, Alaska
Coordinates55°20′33″N 131°38′31″W
Built1903 (1903)
NRHP reference No.14000454[1]
Added to NRHPAugust 6, 2014

Description and history

Creek Street is infamous as being Ketchikan's red light district, roughly between 1903 and 1954, and some of its attractions are commemorations of this past. Its origins lie in a 1903 city ordinance banishing brothels from the city center to the "Indian Town" area on the east side of the creek, and it operated until the brothels were outlawed and shut down in 1954. Numerous houses of prostitution sprang up on this difficult terrain, supported by wooden stilts. Famous among them is The Star, which was one of the largest of these businesses, and Dolly's House, which is now a museum. Winding into the hills above Creek Street is Married Man's Way, a trail used by patrons of the brothels to escape raids.[2][3]

See also

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. "Creek Street Ketchikan". Fish Creek Company. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
  3. "NRHP nomination for Creek Street Historic District" (PDF). National Park Service. Retrieved September 17, 2014.
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