Castroville Street · The Row
Castroville Street, known locally as the Row or the Line, was the red-light district of Salinas, a black adobe street that served as the town's unofficial and indispensable center for commercial sex. It was a place of quiet, circumspect commerce, a sister ministry to the churches, both offering a temporary escape from the bleakness of life. The street was lined with small, unpainted houses that tried to efface themselves in neglect, their overgrown front yards hiding them from view, while inside, the shades were always drawn, revealing only a murmur of voices and the soft, sentimental tone of a piano with a piece of toilet chain across the strings.
Geography and Atmosphere
To reach the Row, one walked west on Main Street until it bent, then turned right onto Castroville Street. Two blocks down, the Southern Pacific tracks cut diagonally across the street, and a cross street ran east to west. Turning left led to Chinatown, while turning right led onto the Row itself. The street was a black adobe, deep shining mud in winter and hard as rutted iron in summer. In the spring, tall grass grew along its sides—wild oats, mallow weeds, and yellow mustard. In the early morning, sparrows shrieked over the horse manure in the street. An easterly breeze brought odors from Chinatown: roasting pork, punk, black tobacco, and yen shi. The deep, waiting stroke of the great gong in the Joss House hung in the air for a long time. The houses themselves were very small, their exteriors neglected, and the wild front yards tried to hide them from the street. The shades were always drawn, with little lines of yellow light around their edges, and only a murmur could be heard from within.
The Madams and Their Houses
Every town had its celebrated madams, and Salinas sheltered two treasures before Faye arrived: Jenny, sometimes called Fartin' Jenny, and the Nigger, who owned and operated the Long Green. Jenny was a good companion, a keeper of secrets, and a giver of secret loans. The Nigger was a handsome, austere woman with snow-white hair and a dark dignity, conducting her house like a cathedral dedicated to a sad but erect Priapus. When Faye came down from Sacramento, she was not in competition with them. Faye was the motherly type, big-breasted and warm, a bosom to cry on. Her house became the refuge of young men mourning lost virtue and aching to lose some more, and it led the youths of Salinas into the thorny path of sex in the pinkest, smoothest way. Faye was a nice woman, not very bright, highly moral, and easily shocked. Her house was quiet, well-run, and she contributed heavily to every charity, becoming a solid and desirable citizen of Salinas.
Kate's Establishment
After Faye's death, Kate took over the house and transformed it into the most vicious and depraved establishment in the region. The house was located in a sagging, dilapidated building with an overgrown garden, its paint long gone. Inside, the reception room was dimly lit by small globes under rose-colored shades, with thick carpets and polished furniture. Kate's private room was a silken room of comfort and efficiency, with saffron silk walls, apple-green drapes, and a deep Chinese rug. She also built a gray, windowless lean-to, a dark burrow where she could hide from the world, claiming the light hurt her eyes. The house catered to the worst human impulses, with a circus that featured sadistic acts, and Kate used photographs of her clients to blackmail them, ensuring their silence and her own protection. It was here that Cal Trask brought his brother Aron to reveal their mother's true identity, an act that led to Aron's enlistment and death, and ultimately to Adam Trask's stroke.
