In January 1942, the federal government notified Peoria that unless prostitution was curbed in Peoria, the city would be closed to soldiers on leave.<\/p>\n
The action was taken in response to a spike in venereal disease observed by the US public health service.<\/p>\n
A reform-oriented alderman ratcheted up the pressure on the mayor and police chief with a resolution that threatened to cut off their salaries if the city’s brothels were not closed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In January 1942, the federal government notified Peoria that unless prostitution was curbed in Peoria, the city would be closed to soldiers on leave. The action was taken in response to a spike […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,199,341,258,6,22],"tags":[88,430,96,34,36,95],"class_list":["post-1131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1941-45","category-2-a-city-at-war-with-itself","category-red-light-district-in-the-spotlight","category-reform_2","category-north-washington-street","category-reform-this-town","tag-1942-1945-wwii-comes-to-peoria","tag-marie-pryor","tag-mayor-ed-woodruff","tag-prostitution","tag-reform","tag-venereal-disease"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n