The Strange Tale Of Hattie Armstrong

Hattie Armstrong was a Madam. And like all women in her profession, she lived a very interesting life.  Hattie ran girls on Court & Dryden Street, just two blocks from where I would grow up decades later. The house she operated stood for many years, and the photo below shows her property not long after she passed. ( Hattie owned a lot of property.)

Hattie Armstrong was born and raised in Ohio. How she came to Charleston is unknown. As she was married several or more times, it's possible that her husband brought her here, or maybe she heard that Charleston was a good place to start a "business" such as hers.  So sometime in the late 1800s, Hattie came to town and became very successful.

This area, AKA "the back part of town" was THE place to go for about anything you wanted, especially Booze and women. Even my great grandmother on my mothers side was one of the biggest bootleggers in the city, and she lived directly across the tracks from Hattie, so I'm positive that they knew each other and Hattie probably bought all her liquor from my great grandmother. By the way, her name was "Old Lady Lewis". At least that's what everyone called her, and I have a page on this website of her story.  Below you see one of the times she was arrested, at least when she couldn't pay off the cops.

NOW FOR THE STORY

Hattie had one girl working for her whom she admired above all others.  Unfortunately, we don't know her name.  All we know is that the girl died, and Hattie thought so much of her that she had this family type mausoleum built in the Spring Hill Cemetery in 1912 for the purpose of a resting place for the girl because she didnt want her to be buried in a paupers grave.  Not only that, but in those days, the cemetery didnt keep track of where paupers were buried, so today, there are over 2000 people buried in the Spring Hill Cemetery and no one knows where they are.  The mausoleum cost Hattie $3,000, or close to $100,000 in today's money, and Hattie had her last name placed across the front. Why? Because she had planned to use it herself when the time came, but that time never came, at least not in Charleston WV......

Hattie Armstrong had been married several times. A little more rare then than today. She went by the name of Papas, Momtz, Poff, Bierman, Berriman (also Berman). But her favorite name was always Armstrong. About 6 years after the mausoleum was built, Hattie was deemed insane.  How this came about is unknown, but she was only 48 years old.  Her sister took control. All of Hattie's properties were sold, and the sister took Hattie back to Ohio to finish her days.  Meanwhile, no one knows to this day who the lady in the mausoleum is. But we do know what happened over the next 35 years.....

This is what Hattie's mausoleum looked like when new.  In those days, it wasn't unusual to have a gate across the doorway and nothing more.  Some didn't even have glass behind the gate, and in some cases you could see the casket sitting there.  I remember not far from Hattie's another mausoleum just like that. It wasn't until decades later that they blocked the view with steel panels.  But Hattie's gate was opened by grave robbers and the doorway was wide open for decades right up until 1948 when the city finally sealed the entrance with cinder blocks and stucco, which you see in the top picture.  Nobody knows if the grave robbers found anything on the body of the girl, but Hattie more than likely did place some jewelry on her. In the meantime, the mausoleum was open, because someone stole the gate. People would go in there, and one account even said..... to have sex, or at least heavy petting. So that's the strange story of Hattie's mausoleum, and when more information is discovered, it will be added here.