Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a brothel.

1880		Caldwell Post 9 Sept. in Miller & Snell Why the West was Wild 243: W.F. Smith, a herder – had liquored up pretty freely [...] He rode around the town now and then flourishing his revolver, believing no doubt he was lord of all he surveyed. Of course he struck the ‘red-light’ – they all do. Then he commenced firing a salute.
1910		Committee of Fourteen Social Evil in N.Y. City 31: One familiar with conditions in the city says that practically every massage parlor sign in glaring letters is a ‘Red Light.’.
1929		A.J. Barr Let Tomorrow Come 20: You probably heard she used to be tight hole in the redlight here.
1935		W. Smith Bessie Cotter 166: ’Specially with the reformers all howling about the red-light.
1945		‘Fascinating Bitch’ in Mess Songs & Rhymes of the RAAF 24: I’d live in a house with a little red light, / I’d sleep all day and work all night.
1962		Coast to Coast (1961–62) 131: Harry was rough, tough and hairy, and he knew where to find a swy game, a sly-grog joint or a red light in every capital city in Australia.

2. attrib. use of sense 1.

1899		Stark Co. Democrat (Canton, OH) 28 July 2/2: An attempt was made to burn the ‘Long Green,’ red-light joint in the tenderloin district.
1905		Albuquerque Eve. Citizen (NM) 20 Nov. 5/3: The big blowout at the Driscoll red-light joint [...] held last Saturday has caused a big stir.
1906		Broad Ax (Salt Lake City, UT) 14 Apr. 1/5: Miss Smith works [...] in the ‘Red Light District’ [...] in the Evelyn Sisters house of prostitution.
1907		L.A. Herald 19 Mar. 4/3: I ceased to be impressed with the quiet, decorous atmosphere of the red-light district.
1909		I.L. Nascher Wretches of Povertyville 89: The Red Light district was so called because the hall light in disreputable houses had a red globe or shone through red curtains covering the transom of the hall door.
1914		Day Book (Chicago) 9 May 1/2: There were four girls caught by the police. But there were no ‘Violettes’ or ‘Maries’ from the red light district.
1915		S. Ford Shorty McCabe on the Job 238: We get a fresh crop of red light joints every season.
1921		H.B. Woolston Prostitution in the US 112: Many men who visit the red-light quarter do so merely to see the sights.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 95: If you were a stranger in town and looking for [...] a red-light house, you just had to ask a bull.
1941		‘Here & There’ in N.Y. Age 10 May 9/6: Can’t that Fellow rise above peny [sic] pimps and red-light love.
1965		J. Breslin [synd. col.] 17 Dec. Television was like a queen walking into a red light house.
1973		Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 17 June 16/3: At one time there were about 2,000 men in the camp, and except for the red-light girls at the other end of town, only two women [OED].
1983		New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung (TX) 7 Sept. 128/1: Theimagination conjures up all sorts of illusions when someone says ‘red-light district’.
1993		G. Disher Deathdeal [ebook] [C]ars coming and going from the red-light van two doors down.