With charming Victorian mansions looming over quaint brick streets, it is hard to imagine that this town was once a booming and vibrant city.
People from all kinds of backgrounds wandered the streets, especially down in the business district. Many different accents and languages would have been heard as Irish and German immigrant families climbed down off of steamboats to build a new life in Marietta and Washington County.
The Ohio River was the most important and fastest way to travel at the time and it brought other, less permanent, people into town as well. Steamboats were often staffed by young, single men. They worked away from home for months at a time, had money in their pockets and were ready for a good time. Being so close to the river, Ohio Street and Historic Harmar were the fun places to be for these transient workers.
After the Civil War, oil and gas production turned Marietta into a boom town and suddenly transient railroaders, steamboat workers and oilmen became a huge and important source of income for many businesses.
At times, it even gave the papers cause for merriment, showcasing how widespread prostitution had become and reads like something out of the Wild West. It is hard to say exactly how many brothels operated in Marietta, as it was one of those things that existed but was, for the most part, ignored. Another thing that makes it difficult to identify brothels was that the house actually doubled as the private home of the Madame.
