: 11 The cost of sex in the brothel at the turn of the 20th century was fifty cents, with the working girls receiving about 40 percent of that amount. By 1900 the brothel was occupied by Madam Grace McGinnis, her servant, a Chinese cook and four prostitutes. Scant details are known about the early history of the Dumas Brothel however, two early boarders of the house listed their occupations as "gambler" and "saloon man" in census records. : 228 After the death of Piche in 2018, Eskelsen put the building up for sale. Recently, they have added an antique shop and a souvenir gift shop, with plans to come that include opening a bed and breakfast at the site. They operate a museum and provide tours of the brothel beginning each spring and lasting until fall. The Dumas Brothel was purchased by natives Michael Piche and Travis Eskelsen, who have been working to restore the building. The basement afforded much more basic accommodations, and was built to connect the Dumas to Butte's business corridor via a tunnel system. The original structure features original vaulted skylights, and the upper level is surrounded by an interior balcony, which still provides a birds eye view for on-lookers to glimpse the suites (or "cribs") below. There is a single story addition that was added to the rear of the main structure in 1912, and this leads directly onto the infamous brick- lined "Venus Alley", once the hub of Butte's red light district. It also includes a basement level containing clandestine tunnels. The Dumas Brothel Museum is a two-story brick building at the north side of east Mercury street in the historic city of Butte, Montana. By the turn of the century, there were three high-class sex houses in Butte: the Hotel Victoria, the Windsor Hotel and the Dumas Brothel, also called the Dumas Hotel. The brothers built a brothel in 1890 on 45 East Mercury Street and named it for Delia Nadeau, née Dumas, Joseph's wife.
Two French Canadian brothers, Joseph and Arthur Nadeau, would eventually acquire the most property in Butte's prostitution areas, or " red light district". Holter, a wealthy businessman from Helena, Montana. In the late 19th century, several prominent Montanans owned brothels in Butte, including Lee Mantle, who would go on to be a United States Senator, and Anton M. : 6 Paramount to these establishments was the Casino Theater, a mixture of a saloon, dance hall and brothel. This area of Galena Street would come to be known as the "twilight zone". By 1888, Butte's East Galena Street was lined with brothels in fact, nearly every building on the street housed prostitution. By the mid-1880s, a variety of dance halls, gambling houses and saloons had appeared in the city. : 6 When the tents and shacks on the street were replaced with legitimate businesses some years later, the "Park Street girls", as they had come to be known, moved to the south of the city. In the 1870s, a group of women, called "ladies of the line", began selling sexual services on Park Street, in the north of the city of Butte, Montana.
After closing, the brothel changed hands several times, eventually becoming a tourist attraction owned and managed by a series of Butte residents. At the time of its closure, it was the longest operating brothel in the United States, having operated years after prostitution was made illegal.
After several changes of the "madams" and continuing pressure from authorities, the brothel closed in 1982, described as "a rare, intact commentary on social history". It grew considerably through the years, with the miners employed by the city's copper mines often patronizing the establishment. The brothel was founded by French Canadian brothers Joseph and Arthur Nadeau in 1890 and named after the nominal owner, Delia Nadeau, née Dumas, who was Joseph's wife. The Dumas Brothel was a bordello in Butte, Montana.