Box house
Encyclopedia
A box house was a combination of low-class theater and brothel
, found in western North America
in the late 19th and early 20th century. It offered light entertainment "such as magic acts, singing, dancing, minstrel show
s," as well as sexual services. Box houses were an antecedent of American vaudeville
.
Murray Morgan describes a box house as "a saloon with a theater attached," which "competed with establishments offering even rougher entertainment." Many of Seattle's box houses in the wide-open "restricted district"
below Yesler Way were located in basements and operated only in the dry season, because they flooded in the wet winter. Others were built over the tideflats and would dump over-rowdy customers into the water through trap doors.
Morgan quotes a contemporary article in Coast Magazine describing the Theater-Comique, a typical box house:
Some of the box houses were not as "low" as this: at least one, run by a supposedly titled Englishman featured women in evening gowns and humor at the level of the double entendre
. The "king" of Seattle's box houses was John Considine
, originally an actor, who raised the level of entertainment and eventually became a pioneer of vaudeville.
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...
, found in western North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
in the late 19th and early 20th century. It offered light entertainment "such as magic acts, singing, dancing, minstrel show
Minstrel show
The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the Civil War, black people in blackface....
s," as well as sexual services. Box houses were an antecedent of American vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
.
Murray Morgan describes a box house as "a saloon with a theater attached," which "competed with establishments offering even rougher entertainment." Many of Seattle's box houses in the wide-open "restricted district"
Pioneer Square, Seattle, Washington
Pioneer Square is a neighborhood in the southwest corner of Downtown Seattle, Washington, USA. It was once the heart of the city: Seattle's founders settled there in 1852, following a brief six-month settlement at Alki Point on the far side of Elliott Bay. The early structures in the neighborhood...
below Yesler Way were located in basements and operated only in the dry season, because they flooded in the wet winter. Others were built over the tideflats and would dump over-rowdy customers into the water through trap doors.
Morgan quotes a contemporary article in Coast Magazine describing the Theater-Comique, a typical box house:
A nervous opiumOpiumOpium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
-eating individual was hammering away at a piano. … Not a woman was to be seen in the row of seats… Around the sides of the room and at the end opposite the stage were built out of thin pine boards apartments with an opening toward the platform and a barn-like door leading into the narrow passageway along the wall. In each room was an electric torch button which communicated with a bar set up behind the stage. The boxes were unlighted… In these boxes were women, one in some, more in others. … Women with dresses [reaching] nearly to the point above their knees, with stained and sweaty tights, with bare arms and necks uncovered halfway to their waists
Some of the box houses were not as "low" as this: at least one, run by a supposedly titled Englishman featured women in evening gowns and humor at the level of the double entendre
Double entendre
A double entendre or adianoeta is a figure of speech in which a spoken phrase is devised to be understood in either of two ways. Often the first meaning is straightforward, while the second meaning is less so: often risqué or ironic....
. The "king" of Seattle's box houses was John Considine
John Considine (Seattle)
John Considine was an American impresario, a pioneer of vaudeville.-Youth and arrival on the scene:Born in Chicago, Considine grew up attending Roman Catholic parochial schools, and eventually briefly attended St. Mary's College, Kansas. Briefly a Chicago policeman, he was involved in the raid...
, originally an actor, who raised the level of entertainment and eventually became a pioneer of vaudeville.