Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has being doing so much for our city that I hate to complain. But even in this pro-growth, business-hugging administration, there is one glaring omission.

Our mayor spends a good deal of time courting business and soliciting donations for the Democratic National Convention coming here next August.

In flirting with businesspeople and politicians, the mayor could learn a trick or two from Mayor Robert Walter Speer, who first brought the Democrats to Denver 100 years ago. That time the party asked for only $100,000, not the almost $100 million requested this time.

Mayor Speer, however, offered something businesspeople and Democrats expected back then: commercial companionship. Speer knew that every great city has a great red-light district.

And so did Denver. Just like the magnificent public schools, superb mass transit and first-rate neoclassical-style history museum Denver had, we once savored a world-class red-light district. Before the city closed Market Street in 1912, Speer protected a well-defined and regulated sex-for-sale district.

Reformers, you may recall, replaced Speer in 1912 with a puritanical mayor. These goody-goodies called Speer a philander, a protector of vice.

Before 1912, Denver delighted in giving commercial and political travelers a good time. Market Street's ladies welcomed conventioneers, for whom they even published The Denver Red Book: A Reliable Directory of the Pleasure Resorts of Denver. This handy vest-pocket booklet listed names, addresses, "female boarders" and other attractions of the city's sex shops.

The Colorado History Museum Library at 1300 Broadway still guards this relic of the past, knowing that it also may be a prescription for future mayors with keen entrepreneurial instincts. Even then, of course, prostitution was illegal. City officials, however, looked the other way - unless they needed to raise money by raiding the row and fining its employees.

Market Street's Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence offered earthly comforts and heavenly pleasures. Their "convents" between 19th and 21st streets flourished from the 1870s to 1912. Several hundred "brides of the multitude" worked a Market Street lined with inviting signs such as "Men Taken In and Done For."

Market Street evolved quickly from a dusty lane in a nowhere town to one of America's greatest adventures. In 1866, McGaa Street had been renamed Holladay to honor Ben Holladay, who brought stagecoaching to Denver. When his family realized what the street had become, they insisted the name be changed. So city fathers changed the name, appropriately, to Market in 1887.

Among Market Street madams, Mattie Silks is the best remembered. Her houses of ill repute at 1942 and 2009 Market have been landmarked and preserved, while 2015 Market is now reincarnated as Mori's Japanese Restaurant. At Mattie Silks' havens of love and lust, she advertised "the prettiest faces, the tiniest waists, the creamiest bosoms, the daintiest giggles." Mattie's pistol-packing toughness made her one of Colorado's most famous businesswomen.

So, Mr. Mayor, consider restoring Market Street. Make Denver a truly memorable experience for businessmen and politicians. You could tax these hospitality houses and fine participating politicians to help pay for next year's bond issue and cover the city's convention expenses.

Tom Noel welcomes comments at Coloradowebsites.com/ dr-colorado.