The House of Mirrors

In 1877, two hot headed “professional” ladies, found themselves in disagreement after a night of enjoying adult beverages.  Their meeting would become known as…. The Nude Duel.

Few in town might have regarded Mattie Silks and Kate Fulton as upstanding. Silks and her beau, Cort Thomson, had become lovers in Georgetown and had lived in Denver for fewer than six months at the time of the incident. Silks quickly developed an unsavory presence in Denver and was fined twelve dollars for drunkenness in March 1876. 

Silks and Thomson were wed in 1884 and remained married until his death in 1900. During that time, Silks became well known throughout the West as a madam in an indispensable vocation—prostitution. But Thomson drank and gambled away her money, embarrassed her, beat her, and cheated on her. Meanwhile, Kate Fulton, another madam, arrived in Denver a few months before Silks.

The indomitable Mattie

There are only two known accounts of the incident at Denver Park on August 24, 1877—one from the Denver Times and another from the Rocky Mountain News. A third document, a court record, emerged in 2006, during a renewed investigation into what would later be known as the Nude Duel. On a Friday night, Silks and Fulton were both drinking at the Denver Park bar. When the pair began arguing loudly, Cort Thomson stepped up, said he would fight Silks’s battles, and punched Fulton in the face. 

Another man, Sam Thatcher, attempted to restore peace and was also punched in the face by Thomson. A number of Thomson’s friends then descended upon Thatcher, with Fulton placing herself between Thatcher and the attackers. For this she received a kick to the face that shattered her nose. Thomson then drew a gun before being knocked to the ground and disarmed. After the parties separated, Thomson was returning to Denver by wagon when somebody ran up to the carriage and fired a shot that grazed the back of his neck. Fulton would leave on the morning train for Kansas City, unsure of the Denver Police Department’s capability or desire to arrest her. By all contemporary standards, the incident was no duel—it was a drunken brawl.

The following morning, Silks and Thomson were back at Silks’s bordello in the 1900 block of present-day Market Street, tending to hangovers and Silks’s bruises, as Thatcher recuperated across the street at Fulton’s brothel. On the Tuesday following the Friday night melee, Silks filed a threats complaint against Fulton with District Attorney D. B. Graham.

Of course, how this would become reframed over time turned it into a much more… colorful tale.  Per the legend, the two ladies were fighting over the affections of Thomson. They would meet in a field, strip to the waist, and draw their guns.  Thomson would be shot while acting as his lady love’s second. It would forever be known as The Nude Duel, despite neither participant being nude.

Mattie was born in Indiana and christened Martha Ann Norman.  She claimed the unusual distinction of having gone straight to being a madam at nineteen without ever being a prostitute.  Who Mr. Silks was is unknown. It’s not even entirely a sure thing that he existed. Single ladies claiming to be widows was fairly common at the time as it allowed them greater freedom in society.  Whatever the truth of that was, she would go by the Silks name for the majority of her life. It would be her professional nom de plume.  

Market street downtown is now filled with high rent offices and trendy bars.  Back then, it was the red light district. This was no secret. It was openly known by law enforcement and while not encouraged, it was permitted.  It was a known street full of gambling, drinking, and pure unadulterated sex.

Mattie had considerable business acumen and specifically went after the high end clientele.  The drunken miners, prone to starting brawls, were unwelcome in her establishment. She reigned as queen of the Row for twenty years until her friend, Jennie Rogers bought the building at 1942 Market Street and opened The House of Mirrors.  

While no photos exist of the interior, it is said that it was filled with walls and ceilings covered in mirrors, designed to reflect the light from crystal chandeliers.  The ladies and their callers would dance to the sounds of an orchestra in a ballroom with electric lights. It was easily the grandest of the bordellos in town.

When Rogers passed away, Mattie snatched it up as quick as she could.  To put her own stamp on it, she had tiles installed in the entrance spelling out “M. Silks”.  

However, the party would end within just a few years after she purchased the place.  It wasn’t the government deciding it was time to crack down on vice and become a respectable town.  Nor was it Mattie getting in too far over her head. It was the same thing that closed down the party for all of the Row- Prohibition.  Without the fine alcohol, the party ended.

The building has been bought and sold and rehabbed and reused in a multitude of ways since then.  For now though, it has regained some of it’s glamor and is being used as a restaurant and banquet hall under the name “Mattie’s House of Mirrors.”  Yes, they even brought back the name.

Mattie was far from a foolish woman.  She invested well in real estate and lived comfortably and quietly for the rest of her days following the end of the Row.  She died from complications of an injury from a serious fall in 1929. Her final husband was a man named Jack Ready. Instead of being buried under her professional name, she lies under her legal name (at the time), Martha Ready.  

Her second (or possibly first) husband, Cort, that neerdowell from above, lies in an unmarked grave to her right.  He may have been a terrible husband, but she did love him.