25th Street (Cont'd) October 13, 2013 Bootlegged booze Historic 25th Street's reputation continued to grow in later years. "The first real interesting development in the 20th century came when alcohol was outlawed," said Holley. "The entire country went dry in 1920, but Utah went dry three years earlier." Prohibition may have been passed in Utah even earlier, he said, if not for two state legislators from Ogden. One of the senators who argued against it was Edmund Hulaniski, a Civil War veteran who lived just off of 25th Street; the other was Rudolph Kuchler, whose family owned a cigar shop on Two-Bit Street. "He almost single-handedly got the legislation for prohibition defeated in 1909," Holley said of Kuchler. Of course, when alcohol was finally outlawed, it was sold illegally on 25th Street. 1948 9 813 Rosetta Davie was the madam of the Rose Rooms. ABOVE: Addie Davis was the doorkeeper at the Rose Rooms. juloGDEN-UTA "o 10854 211 During World War II, /hen thousands of soldiers >assed through Ogden's Union Station, many took a fwalk up 25th Street. "Twenty-Fifth Street was known across the country," said Langsdon, adding that word spread about a barbershop on the street where soldiers could buy a hollowed-out watermelon to jcarry banned bottles of booze on the train. Things started changing m the 1950s, when city officials launched a stronger crackdown on crime. Colorful characters In addition to exploring jHistoric 25th Street's reputation, Holley's book shines ithe spotlight on some of the Street's famous and infamous people. Belle London, Harman W Peery and Rosetta Ducinnie Davie each earned a chapter. London ran houses of prostitution on 25th Street, from about 1890 to 1914. "Some say she ran politics in Ogden," said Holley. "She owned more property on 25th Street than almost any other individual." Peery served five terms as mayor of Ogden, during the 1930s and 1940s. "Harman Peery had no qualms about filling the city treasury with fees and fines of vicious establishments — saloons, which were gambling joints, which were totally illegal and selling hard liquor ... and, of course, houses of prostitution," Holley said. "There are still a lot of rumors in Ogden that he got rich from allowing these kinds of establishments to exist on 25th Street, but the truth is he did not.... The funds went into the city treasury, not into Harman Peery's pockets." Davie, like her predecessor London, ran brothels on 25th Street. i "She was a very beautiful woman, she was smart, land she was a good manager pf business, but by the time jshe came around, changes in Society, and expectations for Jaw enforcement, made it impossible for her to have the career Belle London had," plolley said. Davie operated her "Rose ftooms" with the knowledge tof the police and sheriff's department. *#^ Photo courtesy Special Collections, WSU Belle London ran houses of prostitution on Ogden's 25th Street. "I asked an old member of the sheriff's department how that happened, and he said both Rosetta Davie and her husband, who was a thief and a bootlegger ... were valuable police informants," Holley said. Davie became known to the general public in 1948, after the "Jollification," a party held in conjunction with an event sponsored by the Weber Wildlife Federation at the old Ogden Livestock > Show coliseum. "They always ended the show with strippers, and this is what the men expected, but before the strippers came out, there was legitimate entertainment," said Holley. The legitimate part of the show, in 1948, was provided by Weber State University, and included Holley's father in a barbershop quartet called The Dorianaires. Former WSU administrator Dean Hurst, and former state legislator Laurence Burton, were also WSU students scheduled to perform. "At this point, the audience was getting extremely unruly," Holley said. "They started hurling bottles on stage, and yelling 'Bring on the girls.'... It turns out the strippers had been going around and giving out books of matches with the Rose Rooms logo on them, and the strippers had written their names inside of the match- books." The bottle-throwers weren't arrested, but the strippers were. Then and now Witten says 25th Street really changed because of economics. "After the railroad stopped coming through Ogden as passenger service, most businesses and bars