Tessie Wall grew up in San Francisco SF , married a fireman and was all set to live a boring middle-class life⦠Until her first husband passed away unexpectedly, leaving her to raise their son alone. Tessie started working as a servant for a Nob Hill family. She was paid to dance, get men drunk, and, for an extra special fee, accompany them to the bedrooms upstairs.
But a girl who managed to drink the heavyweight boxing champion, John L. It burned down during the San Francisco fires of , but that did not stop her. She soon opened an even grander brothel down the street. In the same year, Tessie married her second husband, Frank Daroux. He was a political figure who owned many gambling dens and pool halls in San Francisco. Located in the middle of the fashionable Tenderloin district, her brothel was the epitome of class and elegance.
The first floor was devoted to a beautiful saloon. Whereas, upstairs was comprised of a large, mirrored ballroom, dining room, kitchen, twelve bedrooms, and several parlors. Tessie also had strict rules regarding manners and a very particular procedure for greeting her clients. Clients were met at the back door by a black maid who ushered them into the parlor to meet Tessie herself. The police force crowned her the unofficial Queen of the Policeman Ball, a title she retained until her death in The shadowy figures of murderers, cultists, and other nefarious folks still loom over our city today.
Book a tour now. Tours Paranormal Investigation Tour. Haunted San Francisco Ghost Tour. Food Crawl! Free SF Tour. Mission Murals and Graffiti Tour. Who Was Tessie Wall? No, fate had something much bigger in store for Tessie Walls. Men fawned over her. Women looked at her with jealousy. And the police force? Ready to discover the dark side of San Francisco?
