Prostitution laws of Virginia 18.2.347: Keeping, residing in or frequenting a bawdy place. As used in this Code, “bawdy place” shall mean any place within or without any building or structure which is used or is to be used for lewdness, assignation or prostitution. Prostitution was a prosperous Alexandria business, from the Civil War until the 1980s. “Bawdy place” defined: “It shall be unlawful for any person to keep any bawdy place, or to reside in or at or visit, for immoral purposes, any such bawdy place. Each and every day such bawdy place shall be kept, resided in or visited, shall constitute a separate offense. In a prosecution under this section the general reputation of the place may be proved.” During the Civil War Alexandria’s Gadsby’s Tavern, then known as the City Hotel, was proven a bawdy place. (Commonwealth v. R.M. McClure, Proprietor of the City Hotel, 1864) “During the Civil War,” the Virginia Department of Historic Resources explained, “the Tavern buildings were considered a ‘tourist attraction’ for their association with George Washington.” “We did Patriot duty in the city of Alexandria until April 1863,” Union Army Lt. Charles E. Grisson wrote. “There were about seventy-five houses of ill fame in that [occupied] city and of course duty compelled us officers to visit them to see that everything was quiet, etc. The girls would do anything for us in order to keep on [our] right side for if we chose we could clean them out without ceremony—Suffice I never had so much fun!” On July 22, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln approved an order to dismiss Union Army Capt. Hugh Harkins for his involvement in a pickpocketing incident in a bawdy place located at 301 King Street. Harkins, then drunk, was terminated despite his service record. In 1993 Alexandria city…