Valley Junction's Hidden Red-Light History (5th Street)
Today's tidy antique-and-gift district along 5th Street was, after its 1893 founding as a busy railroad switching town, a notorious strip of saloons, pool halls, bootleggers and brothels — the seedy underbelly of a stop where 26 passenger trains a day rolled through. The vice is gone but the original buildings survive as a National Register historic district (listed 2017), so the macabre backstory is hiding in plain sight beneath the boutiques.
The move: Walk the three blocks of 5th Street reading the historic buildings as a former red-light strip — pick a bar in one of the old storefronts and trade guesses about which building once housed a brothel or a bootlegger's back room.
- 📍 Valley Junction (West Des Moines)
- 💸 Free
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Outdoors
Where: Historic 5th Street, West Des Moines, IA 50265
Hours: Outdoor public street, walkable anytime; shops and bars keep their own hours. The vice history is a backstory layer, not a marked attraction.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Verified 2026-06-06.