The Combat Zone's demise can be attributed to a number of factors. All of these establishments are now gone and the buildings are being demolished. Most congregated in front of, or near "Good Time Charlie's" at 25 LaGrange Street. LaGrange Street, which runs between Washington Street and Tremont Street, was the gathering place for street walker prostitutes. Besides the strip clubs and X-rated movies theaters, numerous peep shows and adult bookstores lined most of Washington Street between Boylston Street and Kneeland Street.
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During the 1970s when laws against obscenity were relaxed many of the smaller movie theaters that ran second-run films became adult movie theaters.ĭuring the Combat Zone's heyday, some of the larger strip clubs were the "Teddy Bare Lounge", the "Intermission Lounge", the "Two O'Clock Club", "Club 66" and the "Naked I" which featured local celebrity Princess Cheyenne. With the closing of the burlesque theaters in Scollay Square many of the bars began to feature Go-Go dancers and later nude dancers. It was located between the classic, studio-built movie palaces such as the RKO-Keith and Paramount theaters and the stage theatres such as the Coloniale on Tremont Street. Lower Washington Street was already part of Boston's entertainment district with a number of movie theaters, bars, delicatessens and restaurants that catered to night life. The Combat Zone began to form in the early-1960s, when city officials razed the West End and former red light district at Scollay Square, near Faneuil Hall, to build the Government Center urban renewal project. The name "Combat Zone" came from a series of exposé articles on the area published in the 1960s in the Boston Record-American newspaper.
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It extended up Stuart Street to Park Square. The "Combat Zone," in Boston, Massachusetts, was the name given to the adult entertainment district in downtown centered on Washington Street between Boylston Street and Kneeland Street.