Notorious Blair Street

Silverton Magazine - Silverton, Colorado
Notorious Blair Street	Burke's Custom Tours for Photographers & Artists	Silverton Magazine home page

Story by Beverly Rich
All content © San Juan Publishing Group, Inc, All rights reserved.

OFTEN THE FIRST BUILDING IN A MINING CAMP was a saloon —if not, it was certainly the second! A strike was made, and faster than you could blink an eye, there were forces there to separate a miner from his money.

Silverton was no different. Like all mining boomtowns worth their salt, Silverton had its own red-light district — Notorious Blair Street. Here, along a mere three-block stretch, a carousing miner (or “respectable” businessman out for a bit of slumming) could choose from thirty-two saloons, gambling halls, and houses of ill-repute. Among their colorful names were the Mikado, the North Pole, and the Laundry…where they “cleaned you out!”

Although illegal, gambling and prostitution were tolerated in early-day Silverton, as long as the “Ladies” stayed behind an invisible line in the middle of Greene Street, separating them from the more “respectable” part of town.

The street was named after Thomas Blair, one of the original San Juan prospectors who helped lay out the Silverton town plat. Thomas Blair arrived in 1871 and like many of the town fathers, was a saloon owner. He owned the Assembly Rooms, where poker chips and cards were the vice of choice.

From its earliest days, the street was infamous for its loud music and dance halls. In fact, the people on the south end of Blair Street were so embarrassed by its reputation that they petitioned the Silverton Town Council to have their end of the street renamed “Empire Street.” The petition was granted, and the street still retains its dual names to this day. By the 1940s, most of the gambling was gone and the “soiled doves” had moved on, citing competition from the local girls who “gave it away” in fits of patriotic fervor during WWII. The old saloons on Blair Street had a rebirth in the 1950s as movie sets where Westerns such as "Run for Cover", "Across the Wide Missouri," and "True Grit" were shot.

And now the train, a world-class attraction, brings over 200,000 passengers a year to visit, unloading passengers in the middle of Notorious Blair Street, truly a step back in time.

Beverly Rich has been the chairman of the San Juan County Historical Society since the 1970s. Last year she was the recipient of the National Honor Award from the National Trust for Historic Preservation. She is a Silverton native.

Photographs
Top: "Miss Kitty" marches past the Silverton Brass Band on opening train day, the first Saturday in May.
Right: Silverton's solid citizens run a gambling night (to benefit the school) at the annual bordello ball.
All photography this page, by Kathryn Retzler for San Juan Publishing.

advertising

The Silverton Magazine. Copyright 2000-2010
Published by San Juan Publishing Group, Inc., Colorado
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any means whatsoever without written authorization from SJPG.
(Plagerizers will be hung from the yardarm and fed to the mountain sharks!)
Queries for re-print rights, email [email protected]