Rosedale, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Monday night a long established restaurant with many historical ties burned down in Rosedale.
In 2014, WTWO’s Dana Winklepleck highlighted the Rod and Gun Club restaurant as part of a look at the history of Terre Haute and its reputation as “Sin City.” You can watch the report attached to this article in the video player above.
2014 report by WTWO’s Dana Winklepleck
ROSEDALE, Ind. (WTWO) — For decades sex was easy to buy, and gambling simple to find in Terre Haute.
In fact, the last brothels downtown did not close until the late 1960s and early 70s.
In the 1920s, for the first time, more people lived in cities than on farms. Women got the right to vote and sex was for sale on Second Street in Terre Haute.
Madame Edith Brown ran a brothel just a couple blocks north of the Vigo County Courthouse. It was one of several in town, but hers had the city’s first outdoor swimming pool.
“The house itself was very elegant. it had Oriental Carpets and crystal chandeliers, the finest china and silver,” Executive Director of the Vigo County Historical Society Marylee Hagan said.
Brown catered to high-end clientele. According to the director of the historical society, Brown would sometimes have tuxedo nights, and her girls, who were usually very plainly dressed, would be in ball gowns.
The cost of the evening was $25 which included dinner and… companionship.
In today’s money that’s roughly $400.
More than one account portrays Brown as a good business woman.
“She charged her guests more but everything was done in the best of taste,” Hagan said.
Madame Edith Brown’s house has been torn down, but what does remain is the beautiful glass canopy here at the Vigo County Historical Society. It once hung over Madame Edith Brown’s Door.
You can also find a chandelier said to have been in Madame Brown’s brothel at the Rod and Gun Club located by the Vigo/Parke County line. Brown’s husband Eddie Gosnell was the original owner of the club.
He happened to be a gambling kingpin and a bootlegger with ties to the Chicago Mob.
77-year-old Bob Johnson now owns the Rod and Gun Club. He worked for Gosnell until Gosnell’s death in 1961.
“I was his body guard for awhile after he got older. He was kind of afraid, He’d done made a lot of enemies,” Johnson said. “Well the old club always had gambling there and when we built this one they had gambling in the back end.”
Besides offering gambling and alcohol, Gosnell also provided patrons private dining rooms so men could bring their mistresses to dinner without embarrassing their wives. Others could eat discreetly as well.
“I think some of the underworld characters did probably dine at the Rod and Gun Club,” Hagan said.
The private rooms have outside entrances. A switch inside the room turns on a light at the restaurant’s bar indicating that service is needed.
While illicit activities had gone on for decades in Terre Haute, the city gained national attention for them in the 60s. There were articles in various magazines like the Saturday Evening Post, the Spectator, and Stag. They describe the Red Light District and the gambling.
Although the director of the historical society says in the end, Terre Haute was probably no better or worse than many other cities.
“They all had their Red Light Districts, ours just got a little bit of notoriety, the others did not,” Hagan said.
But it was that little bit of notoriety which led religious and civic groups as well as the then president of Indiana State University to put more pressure on local officials to finally shut down the brothels and gambling rooms.
Both Madame Brown and Eddie Gosnell were in their 80s when they died. They never had any children, although Gosnell raised his nephew.
As for the Rod and Gun Club its now a steak house. Diners can still eat in the private rooms, but there is no longer gambling involved.
(Since the piece originally aired the Vigo County Historical Society has moved to its downtown location.)
