Sin City: A look at Newport’s risqué past

Monmouth Street in 1976

In 1976, if you decided to take a lunchtime stroll to buy a few cheese coneys from a Monmouth Street chili parlor, it was a near guarantee you’d read one of those three messages plastered to a marquee in bold lettering on your way. Hiding in plain sight, blended into a streetscape full of banks, sandwich shops and jewelry stores, was an assortment of X-rated businesses.

“There were about 20 of them up and down Monmouth Street,” Newport Commissioner Ken Rechtin said. Today, there are only two strip bars in the entirety of Kenton, Campbell and Boone counties. 

While other Northern Kentucky cities like Covington had strip bars, no other city in the region had adult entertainment woven into the fabric of the community quite like Newport. 

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