the city's red-light district. The brothel quickly established itself as one of the most stylish in the city. The house was badly damaged in a fire in 1895, but rebuilding started immediately. During the building works an additional floor was added. Brezing was known for her charity. When the local hospital had a fire, she brought up all the bed linen locally and sent it to the hospital. A local prostitute, Debbie Harvey, was murdered in 1911. Brezing ensured she had a proper burial in Lexington Cemetery. The Temperance Movement was gaining strength and in 1915 pressured the city commissioners into issuing an ordnance requiring brothels to close. Brezing and some other madams ignored the ordnance. When the US entered World War I in 1917, soldiers were stationed nearby and the US Army ordered to city to close the brothels. On February 16, 1917 Billy Mabon died and by November of that year Brezing had shut the brothel. Retirement and death Brezing continued to live in the premises until her death in 1940. Addicted to morphine, Brezing was attended to by her doctor Dr. C.A. Nevitt. She was diagnosed with uterine cancer in 1938 and died on August 11, 1940. She was buried in Calvary Cemetery in Lexington. Her tombstone reads "Blessed Be the Pure in Heart". Time magazine published her obituary, calling her a "famed Kentucky bawd." The Lexington Herald published a front-page eulogy. Her estate was auctioned off over several days. The house was converted into apartments and in 1973 a fire consumed the upper floor. The remaining architectural details were auctioned off. Bricks salvaged from the home were sold to the public with the inscription: "Brick from the Belle Brezing Home - The most orderly of Dis-orderly Homes". Gone with the Wind Brezing is believed to have been the model for Belle Watling in Gone with the Wind. The author, Margaret Mitchell, allegedly heard about Brezing from her husband who had previously lived in Lexington. Mitchell denied basing Watling on Brezing. The film adaptation was released 6 months before Brezing's death. Legacy Still standing, one of her other former houses is on the campus of Transylvania University and houses a women's locker room. Brezing is commemorated annually in Lexington by a bed race in April. Several of the city's streets are closed to make a course for the race. Margaret C. Price wrote a play about Brezing,