Rockwell Spa

An amusing tale. Years ago, we lived on 24th Street, a few doors down, at 1420, was the Rockwell Spa, an obvious front for prostitution. It was in operation for a number of years in the 70's and 80's, maybe even earlier. They kept a low profile, the building was painted grey, the address and a lone light bulb was the only sign of life. Occasionally we'd see customers come and go, often by taxi, it was a pretty discrete operation, we lived there for a few months and my wife's brother was visiting, July 1987, we had told him we lived on a quiet street. Suddenly, tons of activity outside, big commotion, police were there, along with the telly news, and they were hauling the girls away. The police saw the out of state plates on my brother-in-law's car, and were looking it over closely for several minutes, before they were satisfied it wasn't connected. Later we found out one of the owners was a lieutenant on the police force, no wonder it went untouched for years. The place never re-opened, but for years afterwards, usually late at night, taxi's would still drop guys off there. I'd always chuckle and tell the Missus, "another disappointed customer."

Usually found in the sports pages, Plain Dealer, October 11, 1983.

The building is still there, from a visit to the old hood, October 26, 2018. This was a pocket neighborhood on the fringe of downtown, cut off from the eastern part of town by the dreaded interstate highway system, I-71,77,90, combined in this case, the "Innerbelt." Heading the other way, the heart of town, theatres, ballpark, etc., was just a fifteen-minute walk away. Some of the houses are still there, a lot of them were gone now.