Chet Foley was awed by what he was seeing and hearing.

It was a chilly spring afternoon in the last week of March in 1903, and although Foley had already spent his first week in Chicago, this was the moment he had been waiting for.

They were walking on the cobbled sidewalk of South Dearborn Street, scrawny young Foley in step with his older, huskier companion, Thomas Ostrow, veteran City Hall reporter for the Chicago Tribune. Ostrow had been assigned by the managing editor to show their new feature writer around.

Foley straightened his jacket as they proceeded. He was wearing his very best suit. It was a grey and black English worsted with a finely cut boxed coat. He had put on a red cravat and his shiniest lace-up shoes. It was an outfit he wore only for special occasions with young ladies, and he wore it now hoping that it would impress the charming young women he would meet today.

'We're almost there,' Ostrow said, less concerned about his baggy, worn blue suit with two cigarette burns on the rumpled jacket.

Foley nodded with anticipation.

'This is the notorious Levee district,' Ostrow went on. 'You've heard of it, of course.'

'Yes, sir, I have.'

'It got its name just before the Civil War,' Ostrow continued, 'when steamboats came up right near here and discharged southerners who wanted to go to the gambling places and enjoy sex shows and orgies in houses of ill fame. It hasn't changed in all the years since, just gotten wilder. It is not a large area. Only four or five square blocks, but there are over 200 whorehouses crammed into this space. However, you're only interested in seeing one of them.'

'Yes, just one.'

They strode in silence another thirty feet, and then Ostrow abruptly halted.

He waved his hand towards the three-storey building to their left. 'Here you are, Chet. Here it is. This is 2131 South Dearborn Street. This is it.'

Foley looked at the building – one broad stone mansion -with its smooth stones, solid lines, grand windows and its broad flight of steps leading up to the entrance.

'The Everleigh Club itself,' Ostrow announced. 'Actually, the most famous and elegant whorehouse in the entire world.'

'I heard of it many times in Peoria.'

'Just as everyone knows about it in New York, London, Paris, Berlin. What do you think?'

Foley gulped. 'I… I wonder what it's like inside.'

'You'll know very soon. I called Minna and Aida Everleigh and told them I was bringing you over to introduce you. I explained that you are our newest reporter on the Tribune. They love the press, and they can't wait to meet you.' Ostrow took the younger reporter by the arm and pointed him towards the stairs. 'Let's go in and meet the ladies. What they have to show you will be something you'll never forget.'

Inside the Everleigh Club, behind the oversized rosewood desk in the richly appointed study that served as her office, Minna Everleigh was having her usual late breakfast while awaiting her visitors. Her sister Aida was seated across the desk, reading aloud from the Chicago Examiner.

Nibbling at her sturgeon and truffles, Minna stood up to pour another glass of Mumm's Extra Dry champagne for herself from the bottle nestled in her monogrammed ice bucket.

Even standing straight, Minna was diminutive. She was five feet two, unstylishly slender (no corset necessary), 106 pounds, with auburn hair that had been brushed and curled high and adorned with sparkling rhinestone crescents. Her grey-blue eyes were small and intense. She was wearing a pale-pink taffeta blouse cut dangerously low, her favourite butterfly pin ringed with diamonds, a high-waisted skirt of dark cheviot serge and a maroon elastic belt. The skirt barely touched the tops of her high pointed kid shoes.

Across the desk, Aida, taller, heavier at 124 pounds, was definitely wearing a corset to accent her hourglass figure. She was more conservatively garbed in a Havana-brown cloth dress trimmed with silk braiding. She was reading aloud from the newspaper story about the mayor's latest re-election speech.

Listening, Minna took in her study to see that it was in order for her expected visitors. She knew that the study was an eclectic mix, and purposely so. Basically, the furnishing was Louis XIII, which Minna regarded as the most opulent of the French Revival styles. The high ceiling was gilt, panelled with elaborate swirling leaves designs. On the walls hung imported tapestries, colourful, costly. The chandelier had recently been converted from candlelight to electricity.

Viewing the study, Minna felt that the room had true elegance. Across the way was the fireplace, its white-veined marble mantel bearing a miniature bronze statue of Minerva, a vase overflowing with yellow daffodils, a tall German clock of the darkest, richest oak. On either side were bay windows. From each ebonized cornice descended embroidered lambrequins with tassels, behind which hung damask curtains, lace undercurtains, and muslin roller shades. On the Aubusson-styled rug sat two comfortable upholstered mahogany chairs – one covered in crimson leather, the other with a trellis back – and a mahogany sofa with spiral arms and lion's paw feet. Between her desk and the sofa stood a carved drop-leaf centre table.

Having decided that the room was very much in order, Minna resumed sipping her second glass of champagne and began to revive. As was their custom – and the habit of the thirty girls on the premises – both Minna and Aida Everleigh had slept all morning and had just finished breakfast at two o'clock in the afternoon.

There was a brisk knock on the office door, and Edmund, their mulatto valet, put his head in. His hair was short, wiry, grey, his nose straight and long, his complexion light brown, set off by a perfectly fitted dark-blue valet's uniform. 'Miss Everleigh,' he addressed Minna, 'two members of the press here to see you, Mr Ostrow and Mr Foley. Mr Ostrow said that you were expecting them.'

'I am,' said Minna. 'Show them in.'

Seconds later Edmund opened the door again and held it open as Ostrow and Foley entered.

Quickly kissing both Minna and Aida on a cheek, Ostrow brought his companion forward. 'Ladies, I want you to meet our new reporter on the Tribune. This is Chet Foley. He just moved here from Peoria. His dearest wish was to see your Club.'

Minna extended a hand to Foley. 'How's my boy?' she said.

Momentarily dumbfounded, Foley shook her hand, and then Aida's hand. He swallowed. 'I am honoured.'

Minna turned to her sister. 'Aida, give him your chair. Why don't you and Tom sit back there on the sofa?'

Briskly, Minna signalled Foley to the seat across from the desk. 'First, let's lubricate you and Tom,' she said, pouring champagne for each of them. She served one glass to Foley and took the other to Ostrow.

Returning to the desk, Minna sat down and smiled brightly at Foley. 'So you want to know more about the Club,' she said. 'I'm sure you want to ask what every newcomer always asks first, "How did Aida and I get into this?" How did two classy sisters become madams? Am I right, my boy?'

Feeling more at ease, Foley could not resist a thin smile. 'You're quite right, Miss Everleigh…'

'Make that Minna.'

'Yes, Minna,' Foley said, nervously. 'But if you're tired of that old question, I can wait…'

'I'm never tired of that question,' said Minna. 'My sister is more reticent, but I love to talk about our past. How did we wind up opening the Everleigh Club? It's a long story, but I'll make it short and sweet.'

Minna swallowed the last of her second glass of champagne, and poured herself yet another. She settled back comfortably in the velvet-covered chair.