Skagway, Alaska

This week, Cheri Lucas Rowlands asks us to explore “…an everyday thing, yet is often a symbol.” The door. You can view the entire challenge post here. I don’t often post two separate challenge entries, but this week, I have two disparate versions of doors to share.

This image, the first of my two entries, is titled, “Door to Nowhere.” During the days of the gold rush in Alaska, many boom towns sprung up with businesses making more money from the prospectors than the prospectors generally made in prospected gold.

The door above isn’t an afterthought with it’s stairwell long removed. The door leads to a second-floor brothel, commonly found above on-sale liquor establishments. Customers of the bar could have a drink and then mosey upstairs for a session with one of the ladies.

But what if you were a man of some renown or other status in the town? You wouldn’t dare be seen walking through a bar to go upstairs to visit the Madam and her girls. Evenings, after dark, a ladder mysteriously appeared and visitors to the brothel could wait out of sight of the public street until the street was clear. A quick scamper up the ladder to the second floor would bring the john to his favorite lady friend.

You can read more about my visit to Skagway and see a gallery of images from the gateway to the goldrush here.

John Steiner