Nina Clifford was a Canadian born madam who ran the most popular brothel in Saint Paul, Minnesota from 1889 to 1929.
Early life
Clifford was born Johanna Crow on August 3, 1851 in Catham, Ontario, Canada of Irish immigrant parents. Her family moved to Detroit, Michigan while she was still a child. Later, still in Detroit, she married a man named Conrad Steinbrecher.
Saint Paul
Widowed in 1886 at the age of 35, Clifford moved to St. Paul. In 1887 she brought two building lots in Washington Street opposite the city morgue and police station. She had two red brick buildings built. Clifford lived in one, no. 145, and started a brothel in the other, no. 147. Washington Street was then the sin district of St. Paul. This was one of the most up-market brothels in St. Paul, and employed the best girls. The interior of the house was well appointed with plush furnishing and marble fireplaces. The waiting area featured crystal chandeliers and Mumm's champagne was served. Business was good, and in 1895 records show that Clifford employed 11 prostitutes and three servants. A musician was also included in 1900 records. By the 1920s the brothel needed two telephone lines. Clifford was known to accept diamonds in payment from clients, She was reputed to have had several hundred uncut diamonds. Clifford frequently appeared in court, as did other madams, and was fined. The fine was effectively a licensing fee. She also paid regular bribes to the police to stay open. She was arrested in 1913 in connection with the corruption case against former police chief Martin Flanagan and detective Fred Turner. Clifford was charged with bribery but avoided a conviction by testifying for the prosecution. Clifford invested her profits in property in Michigan. She ran the business personally until she died of a stroke on July 14, 1929, aged 78, in Detroit while visiting family, and is buried there in Mount Elliott Cemetery.
Legacy
The house was demolished in 1937. Journalist and twice mayor of St. Paul, Larry Hodgson, wrote a poem to mark the event:
"The Lay of Nina Clifford" The windows are grimy and covered with dust In that old house under the hill The door hinges rusty, the lock is bust The spider webs cover it still No longer do gay lights their welcome convey Inviting the wayfarer in To choose from the bevy, his favorite lay To dally a while and sin Gone are the sofas and plush covered chairs From the parlor once happy and bright No longer do douche pans in bedrooms upstairs Clank busily all thru the night No more do fat durghers play and carouse And some pretty blonds on their backs For Nina is dead and her once famous house Is sold to pay up the back tax They're widening the street so they're tearing it down The whorehouse that was once the pride of the town Soon won't be worth more than a fart It's stone they are taking the morgue to repair A purpose appropriate – true For many a stiff has been laid in them both Even as me and you
A brick from the brothel is mounted in the Minnesota Club with a plaque below that reads, "This brick from Nina Clifford's house is presented to the Gentlemen of the Minnesota Club for their great interest in historic buildings". The club renamed its billiard room after Clifford. The ornate crystal chandelier from the waiting room of the brothel was hung in the St. Paul mayor's office after the brothel was demolished. The foundations of the brothel were discovered during excavations for the Science Museum of Minnesota in 1998. A group of archaeologists from the 106 Group unearthed many artifacts. From these they concluded that, although the prostitutes earned nine or ten times the average women's earnings at the time, conditions were unsanitary and harsh. The infamous tunnel to the Minnesota Club is a persistent legend, but no tunnel was found during the excavations. Clifford was memorialized in the 1980s with a play, and then a musical, about her antics. It was entitled Nina! Madam to a Saintly City.
