Times, Crimes, and the Tenderloin
in Pre-Prohibition Toledo
The Toledo History Museum speakers program continues on November 10th taking a look at pre-prohibition Toledo with author Doug Tracy. He’ll discuss his book Times, Crimes and the Tenderloin, a collection of true accounts that paint a vivid picture of the Tenderloin era in Toledo during the two decades before the passage of the 18th and 19th Amendments. Please accept this invitation to join us on November 10, 6:30 p.m., at the Sanger Branch of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library, 3030 W. Central Ave., Toledo, Ohio 43606. Admission is free.
Doug’s book follows the career of Captain of Detectives Lewis B. Tracy, a tough but compassionate cop who was involved in most of the city’s major crime investigations. In 1915 he was placed in charge of Toledo’s red light district, a seedy area south of the city also known as the Tenderloin. It was filled with brothels, gambling joints, saloons and dance halls.
Today, the few remaining buildings of the Tenderloin have been reclaimed as shops, restaurants and condos leaving little evidence of their uses. But the stories live on.
Doug Tracy is a retired software developer and project manager. A child of the 60’s, he was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but grew up on the far east side of Columbus, Ohio. Always involved in creative pursuits of some kind, from art to music to writing, his innate inquisitiveness led him to the rich world of Toledo history and the many untold stories of that city’s Red-Light District, also known as the Tenderloin.