Poker Alice House
See or stay in the Historical Poker Alice House, built in 1895. The Poker Alice House has 5 bedrooms, private and shared bath, and sleeps 10 people. Enjoy her historic accommodations and antiques. Great for reunions and meetings.
Email star-lite@rushmore.com for prices and reservations.
Poker Alice by Ted Walker
Alice Tubbs, was a notorious gambler, bootlegger, cigar smoker and madam. She is known to most as Poker Alice and is often mentioned with other notable South Dakotans such as Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane.
Alice Ivers was born in England in the 1850s and immigrated to the United States with her parents. She learned her gambling skills from her first husband while living in Colorado. After his death, she took up gambling full-time. Alice had a great poker face and easily raked in the chips which allowed her to make trips to New York to establish a lavish wardrobe.
In the 1890's she came to Deadwood and married Warren Tubbs, a painter and gambler. It is reported but not documented that they had seven children. As Alice’s beauty faded, she favored army shirts and a wool skirt to the fancy dresses of the past. She became a heavy drinker, an impressive poker and faro dealer and the cigar became her trademark.
In 1910 Alice purchased an 1895 two-story home for $200 near Sturgis. It is here that she tried unsuccessfully to nurse her second husband back to health after he contracted tuberculosis. Eventually, Poker Alice moved the house with wood skids and a team of horses to the North end of Junction Avenue. The modest home had a kitchen, dining room, living room and two bedrooms on the main floor. There was no running water, closets or bathroom.
After her husband’s death she got a loan for $2000 to add a poker room and living quarters while using the rest of the house as a brothel and gambling hall. She was involved in illegal bootlegging and her “disorderly house” was frequented by the soldiers at Fort Meade. Helen Rezatto in her article titled “Poker Alice – Lucky Gambler” writes more about the bank loan:
“An amusing folk tale about Poker Alice is how a nervous Sturgis
banker loaned her several thousand dollars to make improvements
on her sporting house and to enable her to travel to big cities for
the recruitment of fresh prostitutes. She signed the note that she
would repay the loan over several years time. When in a few months,
she paid it all back with interest; the banker was overwhelmed with
gratitude. Curious, he asked Alice if she had made a big killing at the
poker table. Chewing on her unlit cigar, she drawled, “No such luck.
Happened like this. I was a-counting on the Grand Army of the
Republic holding an Encampment at Sturgis, and I figured on the
Elks Convention. But I was damn surprised and happy with them
men attending the church conference.” ”
Poker Alice wasn’t afraid to use a gun either. Legend states that the cigar smoking, card shark once shot a man in the hand for pulling a knife on her husband and killed one man and wounded several others while breaking up a drunken brawl in her home. She was eventually acquitted on the basis of justifiable homicide and her “disorderly house” was eventually put out of business.
Alice married her third husband, Huckert, because it was the easiest way to pay off a poker debt that she owed to him. He died soon after they married and Alice took back the last name of Tubbs. After a life of gambling, drinking and operating a house of “ill repute”, Poker Alice died at the age of 79 from complications related to gallbladder surgery. She is buried in St. Aloysius Cemetery in Sturgis.
After Poker Alice’s death in 1930 the house changed hands several times until it was condemned because of its location on a flood plain. The house was vacant for nearly 20 years when the City of Sturgis took possession of the house with plans to demolish it. Ted and Barb Walker purchased the house from the City in 1987. They were going to restore it on the Bear Butte Creek location, but the City would not let them because of the flood plane. At that time it was listed on the National Registry of Historical Houses, but lost its registration when it was moved on March 29, 1990 six blocks to 1802, Junction Avenue, Sturgis SD.
Relive the “Wild West” with a tour of the historical Poker Alice home restored by Ted and Arlynne Walker. Imagine the present dinning room as her parlor, the living room as the dance hall, the poker room for card games, and the second floor for the brothel. Admire the interesting architectural features of the home, see items found while the house was restored and count the large number of exits to the outside. (Even though fire was a constant and real fear, the number of escape routes suggests other concerns.)
The house is now used as a guest house, sleeping 10 people with a private and shared bath. Free tours are available when you stay at the Star Lite Motel.
