Touring the 'Cat' houses and the historic 'Sporting Women" of Creek Street in Ketchikan, Alaska.

Dolly's House, circa 1905
Dolly Arthur...one of the Creek's longest "working" residents.
This house was the home of Dolly Arthur, Ketchikan's most famous "sporting woman." From 1919 through the l940s, it was also her place of business.
Dolly, whose given name was Thelma Copeland, had already practiced her trade in Vancouver, Juneau, Petersburg and at the other end of Creek Street when she finally settled here at #24. She lived in the house until 1973, when ill health and failing eyesight required her to move into a nursing home.
Looking back on her career shortly before her death at age eighty-eight, she said: "I guess men thought I was fun and attractive, because I always seemed to have more friends than the other girls on Creek Street. I could never get along with other girls, you know--but I never had any trouble getting along with men."