Alexandria's 16th Street Bridge is now a modern concrete structure that crosses Bayou Rapides in the same location that a previous wooden bridge served as the gateway into Alexandria's red light district, known as the restricted district, between 1901 and 1917.

The city labeled it a restricted area. Residents called it "that side of town."

The section had been rezoned as a red light district where prostitution, saloons and general debauchery were legal.

Why? Because "that side of town" was a big moneymaker for the city of Alexandria through licensing fees and taxes.

New Orleans wasn't the only Louisiana city that set aside an area where prostitution and gambling were within the law and regulated.

But the success of Storyville district along New Orleans' Basin Street did inspire Alexandria in 1901 to designate several blocks in its northern sector as the "Restricted District."

The brown triangular section on this 1921 map shows the location of Alexandria's 'Restricted District,' which operated between 1901 and 1917. The red light district was inspired by New Orleans' Storyville, which legalized and regulated prostitution and gambling.

This basically answers Cynthia Jardon's initial question about this dubious part of her city's history.

"When you think about Alexandria's history, a red light district isn't the first thing that pops up," she said. "You hear about its military history and its being the crossroads of the state, but I recently heard that it once had a thriving red light district. Is this true?"

Yes, it's true, and Jardon is right — Alexandria is known as the state's center, where north meets south, east meets west. Like other places, it has had its share of scandalous stories through the years, but a notorious red light district doesn't necessarily top the list.

'Restricted District'

"It had brothels saloons, gambling joints and an opium den," Alexandria historian and author Michael Wynne said. "After Storyville in New Orleans was created by city Alderman Sidney Story's recommendation in 1898, Alexandria saw how much money New Orleans was making from this licensed brothel district."

Michael Wynne used this generic portrait of a prostitute taken in the early 20th century as an example of the prostitutes who lived in Alexandria's 'Restricted District' in his book, 'Flaunting Their Finery and Audaciousness: The Notorious Brothels, Gambling Houses, Opium Dens and Saloons of Alexandria.'

So, three years later, the central Louisiana city decided to create its own.

"And it's hard to believe, but at one point, there were 20 brothels in that district," Wynne said. "The licensing of the brothels in Alexandria, plus the 23 saloons, amounted to one-third of the city budget. The city loved it."

The district had no catchy moniker.

"It was just called the 'Restricted District,'" said Wynne said, who documents the story of this collection of city blocks in his book, "Flaunting Their Finery and Audaciousness: The Notorious Brothels, Gambling Houses, Opium Dens and Saloons of Alexandria."

Meanwhile, Jardon, a former newspaper reporter and editor, decided to do her own research. After submitting her question to Curious Louisiana, she pinpointed the "restricted" location through Wynne's book and drove to the former district.

New Orleans' Storyville red light district was the inspiration for Alexandria's 'Restricted District.' When this photo was taken in 1917, Basin Street's famous red light district, called Storyville, was on the way out. After threats of federal force from the U.S. Secretary of the Navy, the city shut it down. In those days the railroad along Basin delivered passengers almost to the doorsteps of the country's most notorious brothels, called 'palaces of ill-fame.'

It stood along Bayou Rapides in the northern part of the city. A map in the book shows a triangular boundary encompassing several blocks bordering what would be North 16th Street today.

The bridge is the gateway

"Though none of the buildings from that time are standing today, you can see where the district would have been," Jardon said. "And there's still a bridge crossing over Bayou Rapides leading to it."

The bridge is a key component in this story.

"There was only one bridge leading into the district, which was near where Rapides Regional Medical Center stands today," Wynne said. "It's a concrete bridge now, but it was a wooden bridge back then. This was also the bridge that the soldiers from Camp Beauregard and Camp Stafford would cross to get there."

The U.S. Army soldiers' migration eventually would lead to the district's demise in 1917, the same year New Orleans shut down Storyville with the issuance of a federal order prohibiting prostitution near military bases.

Bayou Rapides flows through Alexandria. Visitors had to cross the bayou to get to the 'Restricted District.'

U.S. Navy troops located in New Orleans often frequented Storyville. Alexandria had two nearby Army bases.

One was Camp Beauregard, now called the Louisiana National Guard Training Center, located across the Red River in Pineville. The other was Camp Stafford, which stood on the grounds of the Louisiana Seminary of Learning and Military Academy, also in Pineville.

This was after the military academy moved to Baton Rouge and changed its name to Louisiana State University.

Disease was rampant

"Camp Stafford had to put four guards on the bridge 24 hours, seven days a week for about a year to keep the soldiers out of the Restricted District," Wynne said. "What stopped it all was the outbreak of World War I. One-third of the soldiers in 1917 were getting venereal disease while training at the camps."

Soldiers weren't the only people diagnosed with the disease.

New Orleans businessman William Dansee opened and operated a successful opium den in Alexandria's Restricted District. This image was published in the March 11, 1893, edition of The Times-Picayune.

"There were so many citizens getting VD from the Restricted District that a hospital called the Isolation Hospital was built in downtown Alexandria," Wynne said. "It was known locally as the 'Venereal Disease' hospital, and it was the only hospital of its kind in the state."

Wynne's book includes a 1921 map showing the facility's location on what is now Monroe Street. At one point, the hospital housed 118 patients and was treating 241 outpatients, all diagnosed with either syphilitic or gonorrheal infection.

No photographs of the hospital or the brothels exist, but Wynne discovered early 20th century issues of the Alexandria Daily Town Talk were filled with reports about the Restricted District.

"It was a metropolis back then," Wynne said. "Men from Alexandria and Pineville were going there, and children were swimming across Bayou Rapides to get a look at the gambling spots, prostitutes and drinking."

The best part for Wynne was discovering the stories of individual prostitutes. His book documents more than 40.

"There were cat fights among the prostitutes," Wynne said. "And there were murders — prostitutes murdering each other and the murders of men, husbands and eventually their wives going into the Restricted District. All of them are documented in the newspaper."

This 1921 map shows Alexandria's Isolation Hospital, which was located on Gum Street, now Monroe Street. It was specifically built to treat patients with venereal disease and was the only hospital of its kind in the state.

It doesn't stop there.

"The district also had an opium den run by William Dansee, who came to Alexandria from New Orleans, where he had a business," Wynne said. "It was all legal, and the prostitutes were not allowed on the other side of the bridge. Every once in a while, they would get into a touring car and drive around, but they had to hire little boys to go into stores and restaurants in town to get food for them because it was against the law for them to go there. It was even against the law for them to ride bicycles in town."

Fast forward to 2024, where Jardon drives through the modern version of the district. She stops to take a photo of the bridge leading to now barren city blocks.

Not much traffic crosses it these days, and those walking Alexandria Parks and Recreation's Bayou Rapides Trail along the waterway would never guess that the bridge once was the gateway to Alexandria's Sin City.