During the Gold Rush, the Spanish Corral stood on this lot as a dance hall and house of ill repute for more than a decade. In 1855, two legislative acts banned gambling and prostitution, yet Weaverville still had saloons and prostitutes throughout town, leading Isaac Cox to write that the entire town seemed a red-light district. By 1860, many prostitutes had been driven out, and the women at the Spanish Corral sought to leave for Shasta by hiring packers to take them there. Their departure touched off a running gun battle down Main Street between the owner of the Spanish Corral and the women and packers, with more than 60 rounds fired and no one injured. Cox also wrote of the disorder stretching from the three story Chinese Boomerang to the Spanish Corral, and several notable women associated with this world included Charlotte Bush, Medora McGinchy, Madam Marie Legogneur, China Em, and Julia C. Bulette, who later became famous in Virginia City, Nevada. Fires in 1859 and 1863 were credited with helping bring respectability to the town by cleansing it of wickedness and debauchery.