Montana’s Last Brothel Closed in 1973. Meet ‘Big Dorothy’

Prostitution hasn't been legal in Montana for over 100 years.

Something showed up in my feed a few months ago that kind of blew my mind. There was a brothel in Montana that wasn't shut down until 1973. Prostitution was criminalized in Montana in 1917, and somehow this openly-known house of ill-repute was still operating 50 some years later.

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Today, I dug into the story of Helena's Big Dorothy.

What's wild to me, is that the brothel was just a few blocks from the Montana Capitol, the bastion of law and order. The sex trade business was located above what is now the Windbag Saloon, in Helena's Last Chance Gulch district. The bordello had been in business for years before Dorothy took over in 1954.

The Montana Historical Society notes that 'Big Dorothy' Baker Josephine was in poor health when the authorities dramatically shut down the establishment in 1973. She weighed 240 pounds, was a diabetic, and had been suffering from the flu for weeks when the raid went down.

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The audio is not great, but the interview below with local author Nann Parrett is packed with interesting details on Montana's infamous red-light districts and the madames who ran them.

Montana's colorful Dorothy Baker Josephine died a few months later.

An eyewitness from across the street deemed the show of force excessive with multiple police and sheriff's officers arriving to arrest 57-year-old Big Dorothy. A lumber truck was standing by, ready to board up her windows and doors that moment. The madame was unable to retrieve any of her things and died from the flu a few months later, while her case dragged out in court.

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The community largely loved Big Dorothy, according to reports.

She was known to support numerous charities and was well-respected in the neighborhood. She had a longtime boyfriend named Frank, an amateur fighter with a lengthy police record across the West Coast. When Big Dorothy was shut down, it was the last of its kind in Montana.