THE KÜTNE READER

Wherein I try to figure out more about a woman depicted on a postcard — and reveal some puzzling findings about a murdered brothel keeper.

A few years ago, I wrote about Koto Kennedy , the only Japanese Canadian living in Kaslo immediately before the start of the internment in 1942. The late Aya Higashi remembered her as “a comfort to the internees” who was “held in awe as a highly cultured gentlewoman.” Although there was some mystery around how Koto came to Kaslo — including a story about a shipwreck — she was probably a prostitute, the occupation held by most if not all Japanese women in the West Kootenay at

In the early 20th century, Slocan City’s brothels were on the west side of Block 36, at the south end of Main Street between Giffin and Fitz avenues (pictured below on the original townsite map). Today Giffin does not connect to Main; the area in question is behind the W.E. Graham school field. This area was seldom spoken of. These are the only references I’m aware of in the Slocan Drill , published from 1900-05. Aug. 3, 1900: “Sunday evening Officer Christie was called upon

There’s an oft-heard tale about the burial of a black brothel keeper in the Slocan cemetery. According to the Castlegar News of June 24, 1976: [Harry] Nixon recalls a story told him of a grave just outside the cemetery. A lady of ill repute died and the women of the church refused to have her buried in the cemetery. In a history of Slocan, Frank Hufty wrote: They had a red light district in Slocan too. When the madam died, the townspeople wouldn’t let her be buried in the ce

Only one building from Nelson’s red light district survives: 601 Lake Street (pictured below in the fall of 2017), now home to Full Circle Family Health, Little Dragon Medicinals, and Starr Healing. According to Nelson: A Proposal for Urban Heritage Conservation , the legal description is Parcel A of Block 61, Lots 23 and 24, and it was built in 1900. (The BC Assessment Authority puts the date as 1901, but that is usually code for “we don’t know how old it is.”) I don’t know