Belle Brezing was a nationally known madam

Madam

Madam, or madame, is a polite title used for women which, in English, is the equivalent of Mrs. or Ms., and is often found abbreviated as "ma'am", and less frequently as "ma'm". It is derived from the French madame, which means "my lady", the feminine form of lord; the plural of ma dame in this...

 in Lexington, Kentucky

Lexington, Kentucky

Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...

 at the end of the 19th century and into the beginning of the 20th.

Biography

Belle Brezing was born Mary Belle Cox, the illegitimate daughter of Sarah Ann Cox. Ms. Cox then married George Brezing, whose name Belle adopted. Brezing had one daughter, Daisy May Kenney, who was raised by a neighbor.

Brezing is believed to have been the model for Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind

The slaves depicted in Gone with the Wind are primarily loyal house servants, such as Mammy, Pork and Uncle Peter, and these slaves stay on with their masters even after the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 sets them free...

. She is buried in Calvary Cemetery in Lexington.

Belle's first job in a brothel

Brothel

Brothels are business establishments where patrons can engage in sexual activities with prostitutes. Brothels are known under a variety of names, including bordello, cathouse, knocking shop, whorehouse, strumpet house, sporting house, house of ill repute, house of prostitution, and bawdy house...

 was December 24, 1879 in a house maintained by Jenny Hill, which has the distinction of being the former residence

Mary Todd Lincoln House

Mary Todd Lincoln House at 578 West Main Street in Lexington, Kentucky, USA, was the family home of the future first lady and wife of the 16th President, Mary Todd Lincoln. The three story home was the home of Robert S. Todd and his family. The family moved to the home in 1832...

 of first lady, Mary Todd Lincoln

Mary Todd Lincoln

Mary Ann Lincoln was the wife of the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, and was First Lady of the United States from 1861 to 1865.-Life before the White House:...

.

Belle's "bawdy house"

Her final and most elaborate "working house" was located at 59 Megowan Street (now 153 N. Eastern Ave). The brothels in the area were shut down in 1915 under order of the US Army since they were considered a distraction for the soldiers in the area. Belle continued to live there until her death in 1940. Her estate was auctioned off over several days. The house was converted into apartments and in 1973 a fire consumed the upper floor. The remaining architectural details were auctioned off. Bricks salvaged from the home were sold to the public with the inscription: "Brick from the Belle Brezing Home - The most orderly of Dis-orderly Homes".

Still standing, one of her other former houses, is on the campus of Transylvania University

Transylvania University

Transylvania University is a private, undergraduate liberal arts college in Lexington, Kentucky, United States, affiliated with the Christian Church . The school was founded in 1780. It offers 38 majors, and pre-professional degrees in engineering and accounting...

, and houses a women's locker room.

Trivia

• Brezing also spelled her name "Breezing," and it is occasionally misspelled as "Breazing."
• The defunct Lexington City Brewery produced a beer named for Brezing.

External links

For more complete biographical information and numerous photographs see the University of Kentucky Audio-Visual Archives