Miss Laura's Social Club Costume Room 
Miss Laura's Social Club 
Miss Laura's Social Club before Restoration
501-918-3025
calsfoundation@cals.org
calsfoundation@cals.org
Miss Laura's Social Club
The former Miss Laura’s Social Club, a house of prostitution, serves as a unique visitor center for Fort Smith (Sebastian County) and is a reminder of the town’s rich history. Located at 123 First Street, it is the only former bordello in Arkansas listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
On the border between what was the known United States and Indian Territory, Fort Smith was one of the historic Old West towns. Being a border town invited the business of prostitution into the town, and several bordellos were established around the turn of the century.
Built in 1896 as the Riverfront Commercial Hotel, the house at 123 First Street was bought by Laura Ziegler in 1898. Zeigler borrowed $3,000 from a banker to buy the building. She renovated the building and opened it as a brothel in 1903. She repaid her loan in only seventeen months.
Miss Laura’s was on what was known as “The Row” in Fort Smith, an infamous red-light district. It was one of the most celebrated bordellos in the Southwest, and her ladies were known as the healthiest and most sophisticated in Fort Smith.
In 1910, business began to falter as more and more people in Fort Smith wanted to do away with the red-light district. Two houses in the district burned to the ground and others were damaged on January 7, 1910, when an oil storage tank exploded, sending the women and their customers into the street. This was known as “the night of the lingerie parade.” Ziegler realized that business was going to take a turn for the worse, and she sold the house to Bertha Gale Dean—known as “Big Bertha”—in 1911 for $47,000. Little is known of Ziegler after that.
The area soon deteriorated into a slum, and the house became a haven for drunkards and drifters. Despite the decline in the area, the house at 123 First Street remained a brothel through much of the early twentieth century. Bertha Dean ran the brothel until her death in 1948. She left it to Jules Bartholemy, a man who lived in the house at the time and with whom Dean was rumored to have had a relationship.
The building was eventually abandoned, and in 1963, the local government announced that, unless a buyer was found, the house would be demolished. Donald Reynolds, founder of Donrey Media Group, bought the house and saved it from demolition. The building was selected in 1973 for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, and restoration began in 1983. A year later, Miss Laura’s Social Club and Restaurant opened. Its life as a restaurant was relatively brief, and it reopened as the visitor center in the fall of 1992.
Miss Laura’s has kept its unique style of architecture through the years. While it is a simple clapboard building, it does have a mansard roof trimmed in wrought iron and oeil-de-boeuf (eye of the ox) dormer windows. These touches make it an example of baroque Victorian architecture. The interior is decorated as it would have been during Ziegler’s time, with furniture and wallpaper of the period. Each guestroom door has a transom bearing a lady’s name. A few original articles remain, including a stained-glass window.
Although the building has survived time and changes of ownership and has escaped the wrecking ball, on April 21, 1996, a tornado swept through downtown Fort Smith, ripping the roof off of Miss Laura’s. The visitor center was moved temporarily to a trailer in the parking lot while the building was repaired. More than a century after it was built, Miss Laura’s still welcomes visitors to Fort Smith.
For additional information:
Clines, Francis X. “An Ill Wind Is No Match for a House of Ill Repute.” New York Times, November 27, 1997, p. 8F. Online at http://www.nytimes.com/1997/11/27/garden/an-ill-wind-is-no-match-for-a-house-of-ill-repute.html (accessed August 16, 2023).
Eddleman, Janice Bufford. “Raisin’ Hell on the Border: Drinking, Gambling, Prostitution, and General Mayhem in Fort Smith at the End of the Nineteenth Century.” Journal of the Fort Smith Historical Society 18 (September 1994): 2–13.
Miss Laura’s Visitor Center. http://www.fortsmith.org/visitors/welcome-center.aspx (accessed August 16, 2023).
Maranda Radcliff
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Staff of the CALS Encyclopedia of Arkansas
Miss Laura’s Social Club Arkansas Mud Pie:
In the summer of 1987, I worked at Miss Laura’s Social Club and Restaurant on the River Front in Fort Smith, Arkansas. I made Chef David Brown’s Arkansas mudpies. At $3.50 a slice, we couldn’t make it fast enough and made six of these seven-layer pies a day. “Best Chocolate Pie in the Wild West” is the truest statement I’ve heard. I am now going to show you how to make your very own Arkansas Mud Pie from Miss Laura’s Social Club.
1 graham cracker pie crust
1/2 lb. Hershey Chocolate chips
1/4 stick of Butter
2 8oz bags Double Chopped Pecans – 8oz. (or walnuts or hazelnuts if you’re allergic to pecans)
2 pkg. (4 oz.) Jello (Chocolate flavor) instant pudding
2 cups cold whole milk
1 7 oz. jar of marshmallow cream
2 bowls Cool Whip Topping
Melt the chocolate chips and ¼ stick of butter in a Double Boiler Pot (Melt over stove low heat)
Mix Chocolate pudding Mix & milk,
Mix one Cool Whip and one jar marshmallow cream in a bowl.
Spoon ¼” layer the melted chocolate chip on the bottom of graham cracker pie crust, and spoon ¼” layer the pudding, and then spoon ¼” layer the mix Cool Whip/marshmallow on top of pudding, and then put a handful Double Chopped Nuts on top then put it in to the refrigerator until firm. Do this each layer 6 more times. Then put it in the refrigerator the until firm, remove from refrigerator. Let it set for 10 minutes to soften a little. Top with whipped topping and nuts.
Store in a refrigerator or cool place. It may take a little more time for this pie, but it is worth it. Enjoy!
I was born and raised here, and today was the first time I ever visited Miss Laura’s. I was very impressed. I love the history of Fort Smith and its culture. I also saw a piece of history at Miss Laura’s that made me feel closer to my mother. You see, my mother moved to Fort Smith from Plainview, Arkansas, at the age of eighteen after she finished school, and she worked in the Tea Room at the Boston Store. She had talked about her time there, but today the paper bag with the Boston Store logo on it has brought it to reality. She met my dad there while he was on leave. They married two weeks later and settled here in Fort Smith.