though her birthplace and birthdate was of a mystery, her profession was not.
Dora B. Topham, known as "Belle London", one of Utah's most notorious madams in early 1900's was the head of an organized prostitution ring in Ogden, located in what is now Historical 25th Street. She used the London Ice Cream Parlor as a front for one of her brothels. At the time, Salt Lake City government leaders chose Belle London to run an officially sanctioned block of prostiution in the city, making her the only state-sanctioned madam in Utah history.
Even though her profession was taboo, Belle saw this as an opportunity to do good by confining the necessary evil of prostitution by decreasing diseases, and at the same time pulling a profit. She built about 100 tiny cribs known as the stockade for the prostitutes who paid $1-$4 rent per day, and parlor houses, ran by landladies and staffed by women.
After less than three years of business, she closed the Stockade and The cribs were quickly demolished. She was sentenced to 18 years in prison for inducing a 16-year-old into the Stockade. the Utah Supreme Court eventually reversed the conviction.
Belle wanting to forget her past life, moved to California with her two daughters. Belle died a few years later from injuries sustained after two cars slipped and crushed her while helping an employee tow their vehicle. With her sudden death in 1925, a business associate wrote about her as always wanting to aid the poor, had a generous heart, and a desire to turn a frowned upon profession into a speakeasy that stimulated the senses.
