Funding approved for Miss Laura’s Brothel Museum

The Fort Smith Board of Directors approved $522,579 for Miss Laura’s Brothel Museum during its regular board meeting Tuesday night (Dec. 18). The Fort Smith Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB) operated out of Miss Laura’s, located at 2 N. B St., in downtown Fort Smith, for many years.

The business offices of the A&P/CVB have moved to 524 Garrison Ave., removing their daily activity from the museum facility, states a memo from Jeff Dingman, interim city administrator.

“In order to keep the Miss Laura’s Museum active and open, the A&P and City staff propose a Management Agreement whereby the A&P will continue operating and caring for the city-owned structure on behalf of the city,” Dingman said in a memo.

In order to do so, the board of directors had to approve a management agreement and appropriations for the operations of the facility and for repairs, which they did unanimously at the meeting. The approved management agreement set up an initial five-year term and up to three additional five year terms.

The appropriation ordinance established a 2025 operating budget and specific capital expenses for critical repairs to the building. The operating budget is $170,879 for 2025 and will be similar each year going forward, according to Dingman. The approximate $171,000 for actual operating costs includes salaries and utilities for the 6,000 square feet.

“It is an expensive building to keep up and running and operational,” said Ashleigh Bachert, CVB executive director.

The one-time or capital costs for 2025 were listed at $351,700 for critical building repairs including the exterior siding and interior upgrades and electrical repairs.

“The building is literally falling down. We have siding that is coming off,” Bachert told the board Tuesday night.

The A&P will also establish and maintain a capital improvement plan to identify upcoming needs for maintenance and repair of the building and property in upcoming years, Dingman said in the memo.

Miss Laura’s is the No. 2 tourist site in Fort Smith on TripAdvisor, falling just behind the Fort Smith National Historic Site, Bachert said.

“An historic brothel of this nature … we are one of the last remaining that really tells the story of the redlight district and that is something that visitors want to go and visit. They want to understand what women were going through in that time and what the community was going through at that time,” Bachert said.

By allowing the CVB to continue operating the museum, which it has done since 1992, they can expand the story it tells, she said.

“It will give us the opportunity to widen the breath of the facility, and also having a stand alone visitors center really give tourists and visitors the opportunity to see both sides of Fort Smith,” Bachert said.

In 2023, there were just over 5,400 visitors that went through the museum. That number had increased 8.7% so far in 2024 with close to 6,000 visitors at the end of November from 25 states and three countries, according to Bachert.