SigMT

40 | SIGNATURE MONTANA TEXT BY ELLEN BAUMLER | PHOTOGRAPHY PROVIDED Across the West, prostitution was illegal but lucrative, leaving architectural footprints in many communities. is clandestine history is complicated because prostitutes were notoriously transient, kept no diaries, and rarely used their real names. Paradoxically, these same elusive women are usually the focus of research on the subject. Unreliable community memory further muddles this tenuous history. e study of buildings and their architecture in Montana's communities, oen brought to the forefront through National Register listing, offers seldom-employed avenues that can facilitate more reliable interpretation. Cribs are the architectural signature of prostitution in the West. e distinctive door-window-door- window arrangement provided public women opportunities to advertise. ese architectural survivors offer excellent visual interpretation. Bue's Blue Range Building at 56 East Mercury, recently demolished, was Montana's most spectacular example. Its ground-floor doors and windows opened onto the street. Scantily clad or cloaked in cold-weather wrappers called shady-go-nakeds, public women sat in the low windows, tapping provocatively on the glass with thimbles, rings, or chopsticks. R E D - L I G H T L A N D S C A PE Until its recent demolition, Butte's Blue Range Building at 56 E. Mercury Street was Montana's best-known surviving example of cribs, the architectural hallmark of prostitution in the West. Author photo. M O N TA N A'S M O N TA N A'S

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