Nina Clifford

Clifford was born Johanna Crow (also referred to as "Hannah") on August 3, 1851 in Catham, Ontario, Canada of Irish or German immigrant parents. Her family moved to Detroit, Michigan while she was still a child.[1] Later, still in Detroit, she married a man named Conrad Steinbrecher.

Widowed in 1886 at the age of 35, Clifford moved to St. Paul. In 1887 she brought two building lots in Washington Street[1] along the Mississippi River, 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.[1][3][4] It was during this time she started going by the name Nina Clifford. Washington Street was then the Red Light district of St. Paul, which was concentrated downtown between Cedar Street and Sibley Street, and "under the hill" near Eagle Street.[3][5] This was one of the most up-market brothels in St. Paul, and employed the best girls.[4] The interior of the house was well appointed with plush furnishing and marble fireplaces.[1] 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, one of the largest brothels in the Washington Red Light District.[1][5] A musician was also included in 1900 records.[1] By the 1920s the brothel needed two telephone lines.[1] Clifford was known to accept diamonds in payment from clients, She was reputed to have had several hundred uncut diamonds.[1] Clifford also brought other madams to the Washington District like Ida Dorsey, who purchased Clifford's building at 151 South Washington Street.[5]

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.[1][4] 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.[1]

Clifford invested her profits in property in Michigan. She ran the business personally until she died[3] of a stroke on July 14, 1929, aged 78, in Detroit while visiting family,[1] and is buried there in Mount Elliott Cemetery.

The house was demolished in 1937.[4] 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[4]

There was rumored to be underground tunnels linking Clifford's brothel to the Minnesota Club for easy-access by club members, though this was disproven in a 1997 excavation of the site for the new Science Museum of Minnesota, during which no tunnels were found.[5] A portrait of a woman believed to be Nina Clifford hung on the wall of the Club, and though it may have resembled Clifford, it was actually a reproduction of a "Miss Pearce," previously attributed to Thomas Sully.[5] 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".[6] The club renamed its billiard room after Clifford.[4] 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.[3]

Chandelier from Nina Clifford's brothel, later moved to the St. Paul mayor's office

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[4] unearthed many artifacts.[3] 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.[4] The infamous tunnel to the Minnesota Club is a persistent legend,[6] but no tunnel was found during the excavations.[1]

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.

• Gangster St. Paul at historictraveler.away.com
• RochesterMN.com: Circle of Parents at www.rochestermn.com
• FSTS 21RA32 Washington Street Residential District at www.fromsitetostory.org
• Nina Clifford’s Brothel at Minnesota Historical Society
• 1997 Excavation of Nina Clifford Site on YouTube from City of Saint Paul Communications Services
• Almanac- Story on Nina Clifford & Brothel on YouTube