Dutch Boehnlein plans to turn infamous brothel into a refuge for victims of sex trafficking.
My newlywed parents lived in a small apartment next to the Purina granaries where U of L’s football stadium now sits. The young couple joined Our Mother of Sorrows Catholic church on nearby Eastern Parkway. As their family grew, Mom and Dad moved on to other parishes, but their first church is still there, complete with the beautiful marble recreation of Michelangelo’s “La Pieta” over the front entrance. Our Mother of Sorrows was in the news just a year ago when perhaps its most famous parishioner, Congressmen Ron Mazzoli – as fine a man as ever served in public office anywhere in America, was buried from there after a 90-year-life of remarkable achievement.
Back in the day, Our Mother of Sorrows was newsworthy for another more “sorrowful” reason. Shockingly right next door to the church’s parochial school was a four-plex apartment building used as a brothel, a venture that survived many criminal prosecutions of its notorious “madam,” Anna Haines. Madam Haines having long ago departed her earthly life, the building she made a Louisville landmark has been mostly vacant and dilapidated since she finally sold it to OMOS in 1965.
One Sunday morning, when he was otherwise innocently attending Mass with his wife, Diane, and her 99-year-old father, a long-time OMOS parishioner, the church’s current pastor, Fr. Philip Erickson, invited Diane’s husband, George “Dutch” Boehnlein, to an impromptu tour of the empty (former) Haines house. Father Erickson, whose priestly vows apparently included “Irony,” shared with the visitor his dream of transforming the former house of prostitution into four apartment homes that would serve as emergency housing for victims of sex trafficking, an evil industry that is a serious problem in Louisville and not just during Derby week. The renovation project already had a name: the St. Anne’s House — honoring, not Ms. Haines, of course, but St. Anne, the mother of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
That Mr. Boehnlein not only signed on to the cause but agreed to chair it is no surprise to his rather large fan base. Born 73 years ago in Louisville’s Germantown neighborhood, “Dutch” Boehnlein (he prefers the nickname instead of “plain old George,” he says with a laugh) graduated from OMOS’s grade school and then, pitifully, from St. Xavier High School. Armed with an accounting degree from WKU, he was so proficient at handling finances for Jefferson County government that he was kept on even when Republican Mitch McConnell defeated Democrat Todd Hollenbach for County Judge. His expertise was invaluable in seamlessly combining the intricate, multi-million-dollar budgets of city and county governments when they merged in 2002. In his so-called retirement, Dutch serves on several boards including Catholic Charities of Louisville (where I first met him as a fellow board member), the Little Sisters of the Poor, and the aforementioned St. X.
Trim, handsome (he looks 25 years younger), energetic, eyes-flashing, arms-gesturing, Dutch’s enthusiasm and passion are infectious. He does his homework: he calls sex trafficking “slavery” and wants to do his part to alleviate this human tragedy with a St. Anne’s House-type message. He and his co-chair, Laura Kline, have put together an alliance with Catholic Charities which organization dedicates a ton of resources to combatting the illicit sex trade throughout the 24-county Archdiocese. The plans are drawn, all the endeavor needs now is money, the budget is $250,000.00 with $90,000 of that already pledged. In his typical, can-do way, Dutch says the required funding is “totally manageable.” If the reader wants to assist this worthy cause, tax-deductible donations can be sent to St. Anne’s House, 747 Harrison Avenue, Louisville, 40217.
In my 50 years of political involvement, I have been privileged to either work with or at least be in the same room with some legendary Louisvillians: David Jones, Wendell Cherry, Jim Patterson, Malcolm Chancey, Jr., Elaine “Cissy” Musselman, Frank Hower, Jr., Bert Klein, Bill Summers, IV, Sandy Metts Snowden, Rich Lechleiter, Charles Leis, Bernard Dahlem, J. Bruce Miller, Frank Harshaw, Lewis “Sonny” Bass, Jim King, Dan Ulmer, Carl Pollard, William H. King, Bernard Trager, Barry Bingham, Sr., Ed Glasscock, J. D. Nichols, Bob Hook, Jr., and Jesse Flynn come to mind among others I’m sorry to have overlooked. Each devoted a lot of time to advancing the proposition that our hometown is more, much more, than just the first Saturday in May. To that list, I’d like to add the name of George “Dutch” Boehnlein, who is turning Louisville’s version of the House of the Rising Sun into a sanctuary for enslaved women trapped in a very dangerous world. God bless this good man and his important work.
“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Bob Heleringer is a Louisville attorney and former Kentucky state Representative. He can be reached at helringr@bellsouth.net.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Historic Louisville brothel now a refuge for sex trafficking victims
