Everleigh Club

The Everleigh sisters were born near Louisville, Kentucky in the 1870s. After early marriages ended in failure, they became actresses. In 1898, the came into a legacy of $35,000, retired from acting, changed their last name from Lester to Everleigh and opened their first brothel in Omaha, Nebraska. By 1900, they closed their Omaha brothel and purchased a flourishing brothel in Chicago.

Located on South Dearborn Street, the Everleigh Club was described by Chicago's Vice Commission as "the most famous and luxurious house of prostitution in the country." In addition to gold-framed paintings and lether-bound volumes in the library, the club housed a $15,000 gold-leaf piano and $650 gold cuspidors. The clientele of the Everleigh House included captains of industry, important politicians and European nobility and royalty. By 1902, the club expanded and the sisters were making donations to the First Ward Aldermen, "Bathhouse" John Coughlin and Michael "Hinky-Dink" Kenna to ensure their continued leeway.

Following a 1910 Vice Commission report that noted there were nearly 600 brothels in Chicago, Mayor Carter Harrison, Jr. ordered the Everleigh Club to be closed. The sisters retired with an estimated million dollars in cash and travelled in Europe before eventually changing their name back to Lester and settling in New York City.