Queer Places:
156 N Upper St, Lexington, KY 40507
194 N Upper St, Lexington, KY 40507
153 Eastern Ave, Lexington, KY 40508
Calvary Cemetery
Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky, USA
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Belle
Brezing (June 16, 1860 – August 11, 1940) was a nationally known madam in
Lexington, Kentucky at the end of the 19th century and into the beginning of
the 20th.[1] Her
brothel was known as the "most orderly of disorderly houses".[5]
A nineteenth-century figure who continues to inspire LGBTQ legend in central
Kentucky, Lexington’s most notorious and successful sexual outlaw, Belle
Brezing was a madam who achieved local prominence and a large income through
her famous Lexington brothels, the best known of which (and where she lived
until her death) was located at what is now 153 North Eastern Avenue. Another
of her former houses (now called “Row House”) lies on the campus of
Transylvania University adjacent to the John Hall athletic field on North
Upper Street, and is widely known as such by students and professors there.
Oral sources hint that Brezing herself may have had queer tendencies. Although
no romantic motive was ever recorded, she and a young woman named
Mollie
Canton attempted to commit suicide together as part of a pact they made with
each other in 1879 as teens. It was also rumored that Belle’s “girls”
performed sex acts with one another for their male patrons. One unnamed
Lexington madam of the period reported that Brezing and the prostitutes in her
employ were all “perverts,” but what the madam meant by the term remains
unclear. Regardless of what is myth and what is fact, Brezing’s story has
animated Lexington LGBTQ life into the twenty-first century, with
architectural items from her brothel—which were auctioned off at generous
prices after her death—continuing to adorn the homes of gay Lexingtonians and
the city’s gay bars. Reportedly, to this day a gay couple tends her grave in
Lexington’s Catholic Cemetery.
Belle Brezing was born Mary Belle Cox, the illegitimate daughter of Sarah
Ann Cox. Sarah Cox was a dressmaker who also worked part-time as a prostitute.
Sarah Cox subsequently married George Brezing, a saloon operative, grocer and
alcoholic, in 1861,[3] whose
name Belle adopted.[1]
At the age of 12, the age of consent at the time, Brezing was seduced by
Dionesio Mucci, a local merchant who was three times her age.[2] The
relationship with Mucci lasted two years, although Brezing had other lovers
during this time, including cigar makers[4] James
Kenney and Johnny Cook.[2]
Soon after her 15th birthday in 1875, Brezing was pregnant, possibly by Johnny
Cook,[2] but
she had at least three lovers at this time.[1] On
September 14, 1875,[3] when
Brezing was 3 months pregnant, she married James Kenney, but never lived with
him. After the wedding ceremony she returned to her mother's house. Nine days
later, Brezing wrote to Cook asking for a gun. Cook was found outside
Brezing's house with a bullet in his skull. Mucci was allegedly the last
person to see Cook alive. Kenney immediately left Lexington and didn't return
for ten years. The death was recorded as a suicide, but popular opinion was
that Cook was murdered.[2]
On March 14, 1876, Brezing gave birth to a daughter, Daisy May Kenney.[4] In
May of that year Brezing's mother died of cancer. Whilst at the funeral, her
mothers landlord padlocked the house leaving Brezing and her baby homeless.[4][5] Brezing
left her baby with a neighbour, with a promise to always provide for her, and
turned to prostitution.[4]
Belle's first job in a brothel began
December 24, 1879, in a house maintained by Jenny Hill, which has the
distinction of being the former
residence of First Lady Mary
Todd Lincoln.[3] Brezing
quickly became the brothel's top earner and had bankers and politicians
amongst her clients.[2]
In July 1881, Brezing rented a house at 156 North Upper Street[4] and
opened her own brothel. Around this time she arranged for her daughter, Daisy
May, to be sent to an institution in Newport,
Kentucky. Daisy May was mentally retarded and spent the rest of her life
in institutions in Newport and Detroit.[2] Brezing
again became pregnant but the baby was stillborn in July 1882.[2]
Brezing was determined to make her brothel the finest in Lexington, with the
best surroundings and entertainment. She made frequent trips to Cincinnati and New
York City to buy linens, furnishings and clothes for the brothel.[2] She
had many influential citizens amongst her clients, including bankers,
businessmen and politicians. When arrested for keeping a "bawdy house" in
December 1882, she received a pardon from Kentucky Governor Luke
P. Blackburn.[2]
Two years after starting her brothel she had saved enough money to buy a
house, 194 North Upper Street. The brothel transferred to the new premises in
July 1883.[4] In
the same year she became attached to bookkeeper William "Billy" Mabon. The
couple stayed together until his death.[4]
On January 13, 1889, the Lexington
Daily Press published a "Petition of Citizens" on the front page which
called for the closing of "houses of ill fame conducted by Belle Breezing at
194 North Upper Street; Lettie Powell, 196 N Upper Street; and Molly Parker,
154 N Upper Street."[2]
With the help of Philadelphia millionaire William M Singerly, Brezing brought
new premises at 153 Megowan Street (now 153 N. Eastern Ave) in the city's red-light
district. The brothel quickly established itself as one of the most
stylish in the city. The house was badly damaged in a fire in 1895, but
rebuilding started immediately.[2] During
the building works an additional floor was added.[3]
Brezing was known for her charity.[5] When
the local hospital had a fire, she brought up all the bed linen locally and
sent it to the hospital. A local prostitute, Debbie Harvey, was murdered in
1911. Brezing ensured she had a proper burial in Lexington Cemetery.[2]
The Temperance
Movement was gaining strength and in 1915 pressured the city commissioners
into issuing an ordnance requiring brothels to close. Brezing and some other
madams ignored the ordnance. When the US entered World
War I in 1917, soldiers were stationed nearby and the US Army ordered to
city to close the brothels.[4] On
February 16, 1917 Billy Mabon died and by November of that year Brezing had
shut the brothel.[3]
Brezing continued to live in the premises until her death in 1940. Addicted
to morphine, Brezing was
attended to by her doctor Dr. C.A. Nevitt. She was diagnosed with uterine
cancer in 1938 and passed away on August 11, 1940.[3] She
was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Lexington. Her tombstone reads "Blessed Be
the Pure in Heart".[6] Time magazine
published her obituary,[7] calling
her a "famed Kentucky bawd." The Lexington Herald published a front-page
eulogy.[4] Her
estate was auctioned off over several days.[4] The
house was converted into apartments and in 1973 a fire consumed the upper
floor. The remaining architectural details were auctioned off. Bricks salvaged
from the home were sold to the public with the inscription: "Brick from the
Belle Brezing Home - The most orderly of Dis-orderly Homes".[4]
Brezing is believed to have been the model for Belle Watling in Gone
with the Wind. The author, Margaret
Mitchell, allegedly heard about Brezing from her husband who had
previously lived in Lexington.[1] Mitchell
denied basing Watling on Brezing.[8] The film
adaptation was released 6 months before Brezing's death.[4]
Still standing, one of her other former houses is on the campus of Transylvania
University and houses a women's locker room.[9]
Brezing is commemorated annually in Lexington by a bed race in April.[10] Several
of the city's streets are closed to make a course for the race.[11]
Margaret C. Price wrote a play about Brezing, simply called Belle Brezing. It
was performed at the Lost Theatre in Los
Angeles during the summer of 2008.[12] In
2011, Lexington's Actors Guild Theatre presented the play. The actress who
played Brezing, Laurie Genet Preston, had previously played that role in a
2004 presentation of the play at the University of Kentucky.[13]
Director and producer Doug High made a documentary about Brezing's life: Belle
Brezing & the Gilded Age of the Bluegrass. The documentary was narrated by
Elizabeth Shatner and Brezing was again played by Laurie Genet Preston. The film
premiered at the Kentucky
Theatre Lexington on February 16, 2017.[14]
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