Perhaps the best
known brothel in the city of Santa Cruz was that which was operated by Emma
Cooper and located, of course, on Front Street. Emma's house was in existence
long before the town was incorporated on March 31, 1866. At the time, Santa
Cruz consisted of about only forty seven sundry stores, including three hotels,
five restaurants, two livery stables, and "twenty seven saloons." The
local citizen of the day did enjoy the pleasures of the flesh.
Emma Cooper, who was
born in 1835 at New York, opened her bawdy house just a few doors away from the
mercantile store belonging to the Cooper Brothers. Even though she was not
related, the name similarity was a constant embarrassment to the socially
prominent brothers.
Her place was a
favorite hang out of the city fathers as well as the boys from the powder
works, lime kilns, and saw mills. It also witnessed more then it's share of
gunplay and was the abode of the charming Jane Allison. At some point after
1877, Emma and Jane moved on to greener pastures.
The 1870 census of
the city of Santa Cruz yields up this surprise. In a small residence on Water
Street (now North Pacific Avenue), between the stately home of Dr. Benjamin
Knight and Pat Moran's Blacksmith Shop, there were enumerated three nineteen
year old young ladies, named: Lizzie Miller, Mary Tellery, and Minnie Lee. They
boastfully listed their occupations as "Courtesans."