"West Side of the Creek" was the name for San Antonio's legal red light district that was located west of the San Pedro Creek. The north side was Santa Rosa hospital. Durango was the south side. It extended from Santa Rosa St. to the railroad tracks and included Matamoras, Monterrey streets.
The City Council of San Antonio made the district officially legal in a session in 1889. Each of the Madams paid a tax to the City and district policed itself for the most part.
Billy Keilmann camer along about 1905 and bought a saloon and numerous cribs for $5,000 with a forged check from his father's banking account. He almost lost everything but his police buddies came to his rescue and made his Beauty Saloon a very popular establishment. He repaid the money into his father's account before anyone knew.
In 1911, Billy published the Blue Book, a directory of the district. He published it annonously. But everyone knew who the man on the back cover was and his Beauty Saloon.
The Blue Book
Many bad guys, like Baby Face Nelson and some of the members of the Mafia in Chicago hid out in the district when things got hot for them. Even the James Brothers made an appearance in the 1870's. The district had been around a long time going back to Spanish days.
Every thing was going well until Life Magazine published an article on "Syphilis" and othert vd and its affect on the military in WW1. There were more casualties to vd then there were to deaths on the battlefield. The only city to be listed in the article was San Antonio. At the time, Dwight D. Eisenhower was Commandant of Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio. His wife Mamie read the article and was incensed. She put pressure on her husband and in turn he gave the City Council of San Antonio an ultimatum. Close the district or the downtown area of San Antonio will be off limits to servicemen.
Life Magazine
Within the next few years the district was closed and the area became very seedy. Parts of the district continued into the 1980's. I was fortunate enough to have camera at hand and drove to the disrtrict and photographed the last remnants before everything was torn down.
What was left
