A crowd gathered Tuesday night at the Bob Kirby Branch of the Warren County Public Library to hear local historian Mary Lucas talk about her research on Pauline Tabor, who ran a well-known prostitution house in Bowling Green from the 1930s to the 1960s.

Lucas was a history professor at Western Kentucky University for 19 years and became interested in Tabor after meeting her once and seeing the role she played in town. She visited Tabor on her farm on Larmon Mill Road, which increased her fascination.

“This woman looked like a grandma, not like a notorious madam,” Lucas said. It was only through talking to Tabor that her feisty personality showed, she said.

Lucas shared a brief history of Tabor and her brothel, along with corresponding pictures. She also included a clip of Tabor on a talk show after she’d retired.

Tabor wasn’t a child of poverty and neglect, but during the Great Depression, she found herself divorced with two boys to raise. So she borrowed some money and opened a prostitution house on Smallhouse Road. The house was later at 627 Clay St.

“She was actually a good businesswoman,” Lucas said. “She manipulated her way through all of the local politicians.”

Tabor wasn’t ashamed of her line of work, and believed prostitution should be legal and regulated, because she thought that was better than having street hookers who spread venereal diseases and stole men’s money.

She prided herself in running a clean house, checking her girls for STDs once a week, Lucas said. She also didn’t allow alcohol at her house – although there were sometimes exceptions – because she didn’t like the boisterousness it brought.

Tabor made a lot of money through her house, often sending $5,000 a week to her sons once they moved away, Lucas said. She also gave a lot of money to those in the community who struggled to make ends meet – one reason why local officials turned a blind eye to her house.

“Pauline was just a part of Bowling Green,” Lucas said. “It was just sort of a live and let live situation.”

The law was never able to close Tabor’s house permanently, Lucas said. Whenever there was a crackdown, she’d just close for a few months and send her girls on vacation during investigations. Her lawyer, Rhodes Meyers, always got her out on a technicality and she’d open again once things settled down, she said.

Tabor’s brothel was ultimately closed because of an urban renewal project, and bricks from the house were sold all over the country.

The presentation served as this month’s meeting of the library’s book club. Many attendees had their own stories and connections to Tabor.

Debbie Harwood of Bowling Green grew up hearing about Tabor, because her mother once shared a hospital room with her and her father-in-law worked on her house.

“What I really enjoyed was that she was a very charitable woman,” Harwood said. “She generated a lot of money for the community.”

Everyone knew about her because she shopped at the local department and grocery stores, Harwood said. Now people want to share all their stories because they see the history in it.

“People probably have mixed feelings (about Tabor),” Harwood said. “I don’t know if I can say whether what she did was right or wrong.”

The library had so many people call with stories of Tabor when the program was announced that it decided to start an oral history project, said Marilyn Mattingly, book club coordinator and librarian.

People can sign up through Nov. 5 to record their memories about Tabor, and the library will compile them and add the project to its collection, Mattingly said.

Lucas said she hopes the information people share can be turned into a book and possibly a movie.

— To sign up for the Tabor project, call the library at 781-4882.