The Levee

South Dearborn Street in the Levee, c. 1911. The Everleigh Club, a notorious high-priced brothel, is on the far right.

The Levee is a former red-light district in Chicago, Illinois, located near the intersection of Cermak Road and Michigan Avenue in the city's Near South Side. It consisted of 20 square blocks in which

... there were said to be 500 saloons, 500 whorehouses, 56 pool rooms, 15 gambling halls, and too many peep shows and cocaine parlors and bawdy theaters to count. All of it was overseen by a flamboyant saloon keeper and Democratic committeeman, Mike "Hinky Dink" Kenna.

It was formed in 1893, during the World's Columbian Exposition, but by 1930 the district had largely been demolished.

Further reading

• Abbott, Karen (2007) Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys, and the Battle for America's Soul. New York: Random House ISBN 978-1-40006-530-1
• Wendt, Lloyd; Kogan, Herman (1943), Lords of the Levee: the story of Bathhouse John and Hinky Dink, Indianapolis, New York: Bobbs-Merrill Co., pp. 320–322  (reissued under title Bosses in Lusty Chicago, 1967 by Indiana University Press, Bloomington ISBN 0253201098; reissued as Lords of the Levee, 2005 by Northwestern University Press, Evanston ISBN 0-8101-2320-7)

External links

• Media related to The Levee (Chicago) at Wikimedia Commons