Lou Graham (Seattle madam)

Lou Graham
The Washington Court Building at 221 S Washington St, former site of one of Lou Graham's brothels
Born
Dorothea Georgine Emile Ohben

(1857-02-09)February 9, 1857
Germany
DiedMarch 11, 1905(1905-03-11) (aged 48)
NationalityGerman
OccupationBrothel owner
Years active1888-1905

Lou Graham (February 9, 1857 – March 11, 1903[1]), born Dorothea Georgine Emile Ohben, was a German-born woman who became famous as the madam of a brothel in what is now the Pioneer Square district of Seattle, Washington, United States.[2][3] She was referred to as the "Queen of the Lava Beds", with "lava beds" referring to the area of tide flats that were filled in with sawdust from the sawmill.[4] She became one of the city's wealthiest citizens before dying in her forties.[2]

  1. ^ Bill Speidel, Through the Eye of the Needle, Seattle: Nettle Creek, ISBN 0-914890-04-2. p. 49. Sources agree on her death date, but some give different birth dates; for example, Priscilla Long's HistoryLink article says 1861 and gives her age at death as 42. M.L. Lyke, in a work of historical fiction, says 43.
  2. ^ a b Priscilla Long, Madame Lou Graham arrives in Seattle in February 1888, HistoryLink, January 1, 2000. Accessed 6 July 2006.
  3. ^ M.L. Lyke, The Misadventures of Skukum Kilay, Chapter Three: The Grand Madame, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 3, 2001. This is a work of fiction, but "The grand madame, Lou Graham, is real, but her journal is a fabrication." Accessed 6 July 2006.
  4. ^ Keniston-Longrie, Joy (Jul 1, 2009). Seattle's Pioneer Square. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-7144-7. Accessed 31 March 2017.

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