Chicken Ranch (Texas)
Coordinates: 29°54′48″N 96°50′05″W / 29.91339°N 96.83475°W
The Chicken Ranch was an illegal but tolerated brothel in the U.S. state of Texas that operated from 1905 until 1973. It was located in Fayette County about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) east of downtown La Grange. The business was established by Miss Jessie Williams, and was the basis for the 1973 ZZ Top song, "La Grange", the 1978 Broadway musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and its 1982 film adaptation.
The brothel that became the Chicken Ranch opened in La Grange in 1844. Run by a widow known as "Mrs. Swine," the brothel operated out of a hotel near the saloon and featured three young women from New Orleans, Louisiana. The ladies used the hotel lobby for entertaining and rented a room upstairs for conducting their business. The brothel was successful for over a decade, but was forced to close during the Civil War, when Swine and one of her prostitutes were forced to leave town as Yankees and American loyalists approached. After the war, prostitution was endemic in the local saloons, but no official records were kept.
In 1905, Jessie Williams, known as "Miss Jessie," bought a small house along the banks of the Lower Colorado River and opened a brothel. Williams maintained a good relationship with local law enforcement and ensured that her house was respectable by excluding drunkards and admitting politicians and lawmen. After receiving word of an imminent crusade against the red-light district, Williams sold her house and purchased 10 acres (40,000 m2) just outside the city limits of La Grange, and only two blocks from the Houston-Austin highway. This would be the final location of the Chicken Ranch.
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