Guy Town — Austin’s Historic Red Light District
Location: Roughly bounded by the Colorado River (south), Guadalupe St (west), Colorado St (east), and 5th St (north) — today’s Warehouse District
Active: c. 1870–1913
Distance from Capitol: ~8 blocks southwest
The Hook
Before it was the Warehouse District, it was the Whorehouse District. For four decades, the area just southwest of the Texas State Capitol was Austin’s official — if technically illegal — red light district, patronized openly by legislators, judges, and city council members who were also responsible for the laws against it.
Key Facts
- Known as “Guy Town” or the First Ward; operated from approximately 1870 to 1913
- At its peak (1880), Austin had roughly 100 prostitutes — about 5% of all women in the city between ages 18–44
- Bounded by the river, Guadalupe, Colorado, and 5th Street — the footprint of today’s Warehouse District
- Saloons frequently operated as, or in direct conjunction with, brothels; some were connected to grocery stores through back doors
- The Texas Legislature’s presence in Austin reliably swelled the district’s business during session
- Austin nearly officially licensed prostitution in 1887 — a city council vote came within a few votes of passing
- In 1900, police actively relocated prostitutes from other parts of the city into Guy Town to keep things tidy
- Officially closed by Mayor Alexander Wooldridge in October 1913
The Women of Guy Town
The district was home to a range of establishments from high-end to deeply squalid. Notable figures:
Blanche Dumont — One of the most prominent madams, present in Guy Town from its early days until its closure in 1913. By the mid-1880s she owned her building at 211 W. Fourth Street, which she furnished with carpeting and drapes. She was also chronically in debt to the local lumber yard. Her address is now occupied by Oilcan Harry’s.
Sallie Daggett — A longtime madam who called the police for assistance on multiple occasions, including when clients claimed she’d stolen money from them while they slept. Her defense — that they had drunkenly spent it themselves — was reportedly highly successful.
Ann Howard — The district’s most arrested resident: more than 50 arrests over a ten-year span (1876–85), mostly assault charges.
Ella Wright — Close runner-up, with six arrests in 1878 alone.
The Austin police maintained a complicated relationship with the district. Officers rarely arrested women for prostitution itself — mostly for assault, public intoxication, or “abusive language.” At least one officer lived in a building that housed a known brothel. Another adopted a prostitute’s daughter. The city council eventually had to pass an ordinance requiring that officers enter brothels only in the line of duty.
Politics and Vice
The Austin Daily Statesman reported in 1876 that two women arrested for running a brothel had threatened to reveal who their frequent clients were, adding that “several high-toned gentlemen [were] quaking in their boots.”
When the Legislature was in session, business boomed. One vice crusader claimed to have counted 100 University of Texas students out looking for “company” in a single evening in 1913 — the same year the district was finally shut down.
The city council’s 1887 debate over officially confining prostitution to Guy Town — effectively legalizing the district — failed only by a last-minute change of heart among a few aldermen. Houston and Dallas actually went further, formally licensing prostitutes under a 1907 state law. Austin declined, though in practice the difference was minimal.
The Tunnels — The Bertram Building
The Bertram Building, located on Congress Avenue, was one of downtown Austin’s most prominent 19th-century commercial structures and had documented ties to Guy Town’s clientele. According to local historical accounts — well-worn on Austin ghost tours and in local lore — a private tunnel was dug from the Bertram Building running toward the Capitol, allowing legislators and other prominent men to move between their political duties and the district’s entertainments without being observed on the street.
The building’s basement also served multiple functions simultaneously: wine cellar, storage for molasses, gunpowder, and whiskey, and reportedly a location used by the Texas State Treasury to store gold. Whether the tunnel connected directly to the Capitol building or to intermediate stops in the district is disputed — and the underground geography of 19th-century Austin has since been substantially altered by construction.
Note: The tunnel story circulates primarily through ghost tour and local lore channels. Treat as a strong tradition with a plausible factual kernel — Capitol access and discreet transit would have been genuinely useful to legislators of the era.
Local Legend
(to develop — seed: a state senator so committed to his alibi that he held a floor vote from inside the tunnel, passing a bill on shrimping regulations while technically invisible to his constituents)
What’s There Now
The footprint of Guy Town is today the Warehouse District — 4th and 5th Streets between Congress and Guadalupe. Sullivan’s, Cedar Street Courtyard, and the surrounding bars and restaurants occupy the same soil. Oilcan Harry’s, at 211 W. 4th, stands on Blanche Dumont’s lot specifically.
Connection to the Servant Girl Murders
The Servant Girl Annihilator killings (1884–85) overlapped directly with Guy Town’s heyday. The first five victims were Black women employed as domestic servants — not prostitutes — but the district’s culture of violence, the police force’s selective attention, and the city’s general tolerance for disorder in the First Ward all shaped the environment in which those murders happened and went unsolved. See [[Servant Girl Annihilator]].
Insider Tips
- Stand at 4th and Colorado and describe what was there 130 years ago — the contrast with today’s upscale bar scene is the whole bit
- Oilcan Harry’s as Blanche Dumont’s brothel is a reliable crowd moment
- The Capitol dome is visible from the Warehouse District — use it to make the geography of the tunnel story tangible
- Evening tours work especially well here; the Warehouse District comes alive at dusk, which echoes the original context
Logistics
- Tour stop duration: 20–30 min (walking and storytelling)
- Parking: 4th Street garages; plentiful in the evening
- Nearby stops: [[Texas State Capitol]] (8 blocks), [[Servant Girl Annihilator]] (story told here or nearby), Congress Ave Bridge Bats (10 min walk)
Sources
- Austin Chronicle, “The Fantastic and Utterly Disreputable History of the Bevy of Sin Known as Guy Town” (2001): austinchronicle.com/features/the-fantastic-and-utterly-disreputable-history-of-the-bevy-of-sin-known-as-guy-town-11707971
- Texas Beyond History / UT Austin, “Guy Town”: texasbeyondhistory.net/guytown
- Austin Ghosts, “The Clay Pit / Bertram Building”: austinghosts.com/the-clay-pit-the-bertram-building
