Northern Great Plains History Conference

Fred Ambs stands at the bar of his Moorhead saloon. Courtesy Clay County
Historical Society.
Trains carried prostitutes to and from Fargo, Moorhead, St. Paul,
Kansas City, and other places. In 1890, the Fargo City Council restricted
prostitution to First Avenue and Third Street North (the southwest corner of
the present Civic Center parking lot). The neighborhood had a hobo jungle
beside a railroad spur on the riverbank, the Scandinavian-owned working-class
Central Hotel, three Norwegian churches, and several brothels. Middle-class
opinion agreed that prostitution was an evil, but disagreed about solutions.
“Purists” said vice should be banished; “regulators” rejected this as impossible
and urged segregating brothels in one area and tolerating them so long as “sin
paid its way.” Madams paid monthly fines and court costs totaling $56.50,
funding extra police patrols that regularly arrested and jailed streetwalkers.
5 | Northern Great Plains History Conference 2012