STORYVILLE

38-block region of New Orleans, La., U.S., that from 1897 to 1917 was the most famous red-light district in the United States. The district was created when Alderman Sidney Story, responding to public protests against rampant prostitution in New Orleans, succeeded in having the City Council adopt an ordinance in January 1897 limiting brothels, saloons, and other businesses of vice to a prescribed area. The area (which, to his dismay, unofficially acquired his name) came to include five blocks each on Bienville, Conti, Customhouse, and St. Louis streets and three blocks each on Marais, North Basin, North Franklin, North Robertson, Treme, and Villere streets. The houses of assignation that quickly proliferated throughout the area included everything from cheap 25-cent brothels to extremely elegant establishments on North Basin Street. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, the Army and Navy issued orders prohibiting prostitution within five miles of military sites. The federal government ordered Storyville closed down, and the city, under duress, acquiesced. Legal protests by local businesses, which went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, failed to change the order.