Question: What city was the first in Texas to legalize prostitution?
Answer: Waco. The city legalized the vice in 1889, becoming only the second city in the U.S. to do so. Licensed brothels were confined to a downtown red-light district called The Reservation, and workers were required to undergo regular medical exams. Registered prostitutes caught outside the area could be charged with vagrancy and fined $200.
Federal authorities successfully lobbied to shut down The Reservation in 1917, when the newly constructed Camp MacArthur became home to 28,000 soldiers training for combat during World War I.
