In the Times yesterday, Alison Leigh Cowan has a piece aboutThe Gentleman’s Directory, an 1870 Guide to Manhattan brothels that is currently among the holdings of The New York Historical Society. Listing 150 establishments, and delivering “insight into the character and doings of people whose deeds are carefully screened from public view,” the palm-sized book discloses that “an hour cannot be spent more pleasantly” than at Harry Hill’s place on 25 East Houston Street; that Ada Blashfield of 55 West Houston Street had “8 to 10 boarders both blondes and brunettes”; that Mrs. Wright’s place at 61 Elizabeth Street had “everything that makes time pass agreeably”; that Miss Jennie Creagh had spared “neither expense nor labor” at 17 Amity Street to create a “palace of beauty forever”; and that Madame 
Buemont of 127 West 26th Street reportedly had “a bear being kept in the cellar but for what reason may be inferred.’’ While at least fifty of the establishments received rave reviews, others were panned: Mme. Pauline Beck of 69 Elizabeth Street ran “a noisy and untidy den of assignation, visited only by the lowest class of people,” and Hattie Taylor’s house at 111 Spring Street attracted “roughs and rowdies and gentlemen who turn their shirts wrong-side out when the other side is dirty.” Not many of the buildings that housed these brothels are still standing; the private residence at 105 Mercer Street is thought to be the oldest of these structures remaining. By the way, the Society has a an older, smaller guide dating from 1859 called Directory to the Seraglios, compiled by the “Free Loveyer.” (Pictured, a drawing from the an 1880 issue of the National Police Gazette titled “The Genius of Advertising” that shows men outside a brothel gazing at pictures of the residents awaiting within.)
