Ketchikan, Alaska - In many ways, the true history of Ketchikan's "infamous" Creek Street is lost in the fog shrouded mists that often covered the dozens of small bawdy houses that lined both sides of the Ketchikan Creek boardwalk for more than half a century. The nature of "Creek Street" was an open secret from its founding in , but like most "red light" districts, a lot of information was never committed to paper. As Ketchikan began transforming from a collection of rough shacks along Ketchikan Creek in early s, it first began to spread northward of where the tunnel is now to area that came to be called "New Town.
New Town was a mercantile area that serviced the fishing vessels and other small boats that used what was called City Float now Casey Moran Harbor.
The hillside above City Float gradually sprouted houses, in effect becoming Ketchikan's first "suburb. A boardwalk street that angled back along the original waterfront eventually became Hopkins Alley. It was along this alley that several of Ketchikan's early bawdy houses were established by the late s. New Town Too Respectable. By , New Town had become a little too "respectable" and a group of residents in the area petitioned the city council to "move" the sporting houses elsewhere.
The council met at 8 pm on March 4, in council president - Ketchikan's civic leader was not officially called 'mayor' until - George Irving's downtown office. On the agenda of the "special" meeting were several housekeeping items involving the payment of various town bills to local businesses such as Tongass Trading.
But also to be discussed, according to the meeting minutes taken by town clerk, J. Willis, was a petition from "residents of New Town concerning the removal of certain bawdy houses. The petition itself appears not to have been saved, so it can't be determined who or how many "residents" of New Town signed the petition. Of the councilmembers who would discuss the petition, one - J.
