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Hensley's The Grand

The Grand, at the corner of State and Joliet, Nov. 17 1935, showing earthquake damage. During the gold-rush era, it was owned by Josephine "Chicago Jo" Hensley, and was likely a brothel. Hensley also owned the Red Light Saloon, the Coliseum variety theater, and had other commercial interests in the Helena area, including stock-raising.



Mirroring Helena’s prosperous aura was its extensive red light district, which flourished between Wood and Bridge Streets. Initially, a number of “proprietor prostitutes” working alone out of small houses that they owned, defined the district. By the 1880s, however, a few increasingly powerful madams consolidated ownership of the tenderloin, erecting several large parlors and colorful bawdy houses. By 1886, no less than 52 white prostitutes worked in Helena’s demimonde, which for more than 20 years had constituted the town’s largest single source of women’s employment outside of the home.

One of the most prominent madams in Helena during this time was Josephine Airey “Chicago Joe” Hensley who, beginning in 1871, shrewdly manipulated a series of business deals to become “the queen of the city’s red light district.” Mortgaging everything, including “three dozen pair of underclothes,” she rapidly became the largest landowner on Wood Street. At the peak of her success, “Chicago Joe” had invested more than $30,000 to erect the Coliseum, a vaudevillian variety theater, and other sizable building projects. But the nationwide Panic of 1893 found her financially overextended, and virtually all of her property ultimately transferred to others. She died of pneumonia a few years later at the age of 56.

Her name showed up in the headlines often...