The man who led the charge to stamp out prostitution and other forms of vice was an alderman named Sidney Story. As a compromise, Story was the one who put forth the ordinance in 1897 that led to the creation of a district. He did so reluctantly as a means to, as he put it, “lessen the blight” of vice throughout the city. For his troubles, his detractors forever after referred to the district as “Storyville.” Much to Story’s consternation, the name stuck.
