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| Madame Louise "Lou" Graham (1861-1903[1,2]) owned a bordello located in Pioneer Square in [[Seattle, Washington]] (the area was known then as Whitechapel, "Tenderloin District", "Seattle's Tenderloin", or Red-Light District). Robert Abrams, a Territorial Legislator, sold land at a corner on Fourth and S. Washington, to who he believed was a man named Lou. Graham for $3000 in 1885[3]. After the Great Seattle Fire in 1889, Lou Graham rebuilt her business spending $25,000 to construct a three-story brick building[4], today known as the Washington Court Building at Third and S. Washington. Her business is only remembered as Lou Graham's Parlor. Madame Lou passed away in [[San Francisco]] in 1903. | | #REDIRECT[[Madame Louise "Lou" Graham (1861-1903)]] |
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| Lou Graham would hire others who lived at her venue as seamstresses offering tailoring services, a cover for sex workers at the time. Lou herself had a romantic relationship and partnership with another woman, Amber Delmas[5], and she hired, possibly, transgender women who would be requested by clients as "the lady in the black dress". Lou Graham never became a citizen of the United States, a German immigrant, and had no known children while here[6,7]. Her possessions were challenged by relatives in Germany but, without citizenship, all her property in Washington could acquired by the state through escheatment. The matter was debated for years[8,9,10,11].
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| Lou Graham hired Chinese and Japanese servants as cooks and other laborers, two of which demanded unpaid wages in the breakup of her estate[12]. One of them also reported to have loaned her $800 which was never paid back.
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| === Police Raids ===
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| In 1891, Lou was acquitted at an attempt to close the business but many police including the chief refused to testify against the character of the women or the parlor[13]. The business was subject to many raids and arrests throughout its lifetime[14,15]. Many times these were for charges of selling liquor without a license, which were charges paid for through fines[16,17].
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| === Other Stories ===
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| Lou Graham petitioned the city to widen the sidewalks at Fourth and Washington in 1890[18]. In 1894, she had a diamond necklace and other jewelry of such significant value that it was known to the point which robbers plotted to take but were unsuccessful and captured by police[19].
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| == Gallery ==
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| === Madame Lou Graham's Parlor and Seattle's "Seamstresses" (1888) ===
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| Madame Lou Graham (seated left), along with other "Seamstresses" at her parlor.
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| <gallery>
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| File:Madame-lou-graham-seattle.jpg
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| </gallery>
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| == Sources ==
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| # Secretary of State, [https://www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/Record/View/E906DD85C047AB466162ADD255102124 "King County Auditor, Death Records, 1891-1907"]
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| # Library of Congress, [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84025811/1903-03-13/ed-1/seq-3/ "The Seattle Republican, March 13, 1903, Image 3": "Personal"]
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| # Library of Congress, [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045611/1885-10-06/ed-1/seq-2/ "Seattle daily post-intelligencer, October 06, 1885, Image 2": "Brevities"]
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| # Library of Congress, [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045604/1891-06-06/ed-1/seq-12/ "The Seattle post-intelligencer, June 06, 1891, Page 12, Image 12": "Two Years After - What Has Been Accomplished Since the Great Fire"]
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| # Libbie Hawker, "Madam" (2018) Historical Note And Acknowledgements
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| # Library of Congress, [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88085421/1904-07-22/ed-1/seq-3/ "The Evening statesman, July 22, 1904, Image 3": "State to Get Lou Graham Estate"]
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| # University of Washington, [https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/ptleader/id/1261 "Port Townsend Daily Leader No. 219 (July 21, 1904)": "H.H. Eaton Gets Into Difficulty"]
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| # Library of Congress, [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84025811/1904-08-26/ed-1/seq-5/ "The Seattle Republican, August 26, 1904, Image 5": "Political Pot-Pie"]
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| # Library of Congress, "The Seattle Republican., January 27, 1905, Image 2"
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| # University of Washington, [https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/ptleader/id/1568 "Port Townsend Daily Leader (August 21, 1904)"]
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| # University of Washington, [https://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/digital/collection/ptleader/id/1706 "Port Townsend Daily Leader (September 9, 1904)"]
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| # Library of Congress, "The Seattle star, April 24, 1903, Page 8, Image 8"
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| # Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, February 21, 1891, Image 2"
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| # Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, July 21, 1889, Image 8"
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| # Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, April 13, 1892, Page 8, Image 8"
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| # Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, January 13, 1891, Page 5, Image 5": "Illicit Liquor Selling"
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| # Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, June 07, 1890, Page 8, Image 8": "The Police Courts"
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| # Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, October 30, 1890, Page 8, Image 8"
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| # Library of Congress, [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045604/1894-02-20/ed-1/seq-5/ "The Seattle post-intelligencer, February 20, 1894, Page 5, Image 5": "To Rob Lou Graham"]
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| # Photo courtesy of Paul Dorpat and HistoryLink.org [https://www.historylink.org/File/2762 "Madame Lou Graham arrives in Seattle in February 1888."]
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| == Other References ==
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| * Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, August 16, 1889, Image 4": "The Whitechapel District"
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| * Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, April 12, 1890, Page 6, Image 6"
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| * Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, October 06, 1890, Page 7, Image 7": "The Waterfront"
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| * Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, November 01, 1890, Image 8": "Tax on Whitechapel"
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| * Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, January 01, 1891, Page 5, Image 5": "Stores and Homes - Prodigious Activity In All Building Lines"
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| * Library of Congress, [https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045604/1891-02-15/ed-1/seq-8/ "The Seattle post-intelligencer, February 15, 1891, Page 8, Image 8": "After Bad Women"]
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| * Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, February 15, 1891, Page 8, Image 8": "The First Woman Tried"
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| * Library of Congress, "The morning call, February 21, 1891, Page 8, Image 8": "Lenient Juries"
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| * Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, January 14, 1892, Page 5, Image 5": "Tried for Selling Without License"
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| * Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, January 15, 1892, Page 8, Image 8": "Breveties"
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| * Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, October 30, 1892, Page 3, Image 3"
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| * Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, December 16, 1892, Page 5, Image 5"
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| * Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, October 12, 1893, Page 8, Image 8"
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| * Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, January 13, 1896, Image 7": "Waterfront Notes"
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| * Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, January 31, 1896, Page 7, Image 7": "Passengers on the Umatilla"
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| * Library of Congress, "The Seattle post-intelligencer, May 01, 1898, Page 3, Image 3"
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