Anderson Saloon / Good for 5¢ in trade. New Orleans, Louisiana. Rarity 9 = 2-3 known specimens.
From Crawford and Farber, Louisiana Trade Tokens, 2nd Ed. (1996):
Quote:
Tom Anderson erected a saloon and brothel in 1907 for Josie Arlington (nee Mary Deubler) at 225 Basin Street and named the establishment in her honor. This was one of the more elaborate of the 'houses' in the Storyville district, as was dubbed by some as 'Storyville City Hall'. In fact, Tom Anderson himself was the unofficial mayor of Storyville.
In 1905 Josie moved her enterprise to rooms above another saloon owned by Anderson at 114 North Rampart Street and this saloon then became known as the Arlington. Josie Arlington retired from the pleasure business in 1909 but the saloon retained her name until it was closed by Prohibition.
From Derby Gisclair, New Orleans historian:
Quote:
Mary Deubler was born in New Orleans around 1864 and was drawn into a life of prostitution at the age of seventeen by Philip Lobrano in order to support her family. Lobrano would later be arrested for the murder of her brother, Peter Deubler, but was acquitted of the crime. At the age of twenty-six she opened her first brothel at 172 Customhouse Street (Iberville Street) which she relocated to 225 North Basin Street in Storyville in 1898 shortly after it opened.
Mary took up with a clerk in the city's Treasury Office named Tom Brady. Following a trip to the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs she renamed her brothel and took the name Josie Arlington as her nom de guerre. Influenced by the opulence of the Arlington Hotel, Josie's establishment was elegant and expensive. Her selection of available ladies for patrons to consider was augmented by a "live sex circus" that could be viewed for an extra fee.
When here brothel was destroyed by fire in 1905 she moved into the building next door to Tom Anderson's saloon and renamed it the Arlington Annex. She sold the business to Anderson in 1909 when she retired. Arlington died in 1914 and is buried in Metairie Cemetery. Her tomb, designed by Albert Weiblen, was one of the most visited, so the family moved her body to another location within the cemetery. The deceased members of the Morales family are now occupants of the Arlington tomb.
Josie ArlingtonA brief history of Storyville, the red-light district considered by many to be the birthplace of jazz:
https://neworleanshistorical.org/items/show/1307
Posted 11/01/2023 4:49 pm
