Prince William — In a progressive move to spur tourism and re-energize the visitor experience at Kings Landing Historical Settlement, one of the dwellings currently used for a static exhibit will be converted into an 1800s-style, eight-room brothel in time for the 2019 season.
Earlier this year the settlement’s administration came under fire for converting previously staffed buildings into a series of museum-style, walk-through displays, a move some view as straying from the original vision for the settlement. The decision to return inhabitants to one of those dwellings was made in order to increase visitor numbers through word-of-mouth advertising.
“The fact is that tourists come to Kings Landing for a certain lifelike reality. To be immersed in a living, breathing, working…and now copulating…environment,” said Ruby Marigold, manager of Exhibit Experience.
Administrators have designated the Gordon Gallery, a dwelling that is farther off the beaten path and beyond the view of any curious youngsters, as the location for the new brothel. The madam and attendant positions will be offered to current staff first, and then to outsiders if any vacancies remain.
“It will give some of the gals a chance to shed their heavy outfits, which one could consider a job perk during hot summer days,” Marigold pointed out.
Although the brothel will have no running water, attendants will be required to fill tin tubs with spring or well water and bathe at least once every three days, scrubbing vigorously with soap made from animal fats.
Visitors 18 and over wishing to spend time in the brothel will be issued a different-coloured bracelet so that they may come and go freely to the brothel during the settlement’s visiting hours. They will also be provided with historically accurate-sized condoms fashioned from sheep intestines by the local menfolk. Guests will be permitted to “dip their quill in the ink” with their choice from an array of pale, white-skinned women of European descent.
As part of the village’s daily programming, characters from the Ingraham, Heustis, Long and Perley houses, as well as members of both churches, will rotate staging mock protests outside the brothel or will come seeking husbands who haven’t returned from doing their chores in the field on time for supper.
Kings Landing Historical Settlement, just west of Fredericton, was opened in 1974 and is one of the province’s biggest tourist attractions.