Mother Damnable

Who was Mother Damnable?

Mary Ann Conklin, also known as Mother Damnable and Madame Damnable ran Seattle's first hotel, the Felker House, whose relatively high-class brothel was a major means of accumulating money from sailors and lumbermen into local businesses. The name by which she is most widely known derives not from the nature of her business, but from her legendarily unrestrained language, learned at sea and from her customers. It was said that she swore expertly in Chinese, English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish.