As the sun set behind Alki across Elliott Bay, we stood and watched the auto ferry sail into port before saying fairwell to Seattle. And with this image, I present one more story from Seattle's early years. ************************************************* Dorothea Georgine Emile Ohben, was a German-born woman who came to Seattle in 1888. Bill Speidel, in his history of early Seattle, Sons of the Profits describes her as regal, “about five feet, two inches, and at chest height, she was about three feet thick. She went for plumed hats and smart carriages. She stood for integrity in her field, and a kind of class that couldn't be matched outside of the other major cities of the world.” Her stage name was Lou Graham and by that name she was known. In Seattle at the time ‘working women’ would charge whatever the traffic would bear and, of course, paid no taxes. They generally catered to the lower classes. When a woman was booked at the city jail for prostitution she would often list her occupation as “seamstress”. Lou Graham went to the city establishment in 1888 with a business proposition. She would open a high-class house and set up a “sowing club” staffed by women who would be gorgeous, talented, and who could discuss the opera, or politics, or economics, or world conditions on an intelligent level. It would be a place where wealthy clients could indulge in good drink, lively political discussions and, upstairs, pleasures of the flesh. Prices would be fixed and the establishment would pay its fair share in city taxes. With their financial backing she opened the finest brothel on the west coast. It was said that more city business was transacted at Lou's than at City Hall. No young businessman was really considered a man about town until he could discuss with ease the interior decorations of Lou's establishment...and some of the finer points of the distinguished young ladies. Before dying at the age of 42, Graham had become a wealthy landowner, one of the largest landholders in the Pacific Northwest. She contributed liberally to projects sponsored by the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, contributing more money to the education of the city's children than the rest of the city's prominent early citizens combined. Her “house” still stands at 221 South Washington ST S. It is now a landmark known as the Washington Court Building and houses the Union Gospel Mission.