On February 1, 1900, Minna and Ada Everleigh opened the Everleigh Club in Chicago’s Levee District. Opulent, exclusive, and notorious, it became the most talked-about brothel in America—frequented by millionaires, dignitaries, and politicians. But by 1911, national reformers forced its closure, ending the sisters’ reign over Chicago’s red-light empire.
Their story, however, didn’t end in Chicago. Years later, the women who once dominated headlines were buried under their family name Simms in St. Paul’s Cemetery in Alexandria, Virginia. Their modest gravestones are easy to overlook—but their legacy is anything but.