Today's story comes to us from the junior college formerly known as Ricks College in the mid 90's.
(I went there '97 to '98 and heard this story my first week)
Some time in the early to mid 90's at Ricks, there was a group of apartments knows as the Harmony House. All Ricks-approved housing had some pretentious name like, "The Colonial," "Aspen Chalet," "The Carriage House," etc.
In order to be approved to house Ricks students, an apartment had to agree to conditions, such as:
1) Only one sex is allowed to live there (meaning the whole complex is either all boys or all girls
2) They must enforce all of Ricks' rules, including curfew and where visitors were allowed within the apartment.
3) Rooms are inspected weekly to maintain cleanliness
etc., among other rules.
Anyway, as the story goes, there was a group of girls living in the Harmony House that were in need of money, and decided to open a brothel as a solution. They only advertised by word-of-mouth from pleased customers as to not attract attention to themselves.
Anyone who wanted to stop by would walk in front of the apartment and see the orientation of a pair of tennis rackets mounted near the main window. If they were crossed, it meant the brothel was closed. If they were uncrossed, come on in. I assume it was easy to remember the system if you think of the tennis racket handles as legs.
This went on for several months. The way they were caught is that an eagle-eyed bishop noted that these girls had a decent amount of money being turned in for tithing, yet knew they didn't have a job around town. After doing a little investigating, he discovered what was (or, who, I guess) going down.
THAT'S RIGHT! THESE GIRLS WERE PAYING TITHING ON MONEY THEY MADE FROM PROSTITUTION!!!
Ever since that apartment has had a reputation that they have tried to shed, even going as far as changing it to "Beehive Manor." Most of the girls who were moving there changed apartments once they found out the history.
This does sound like an urban legend but I remember hearing it when I was at BYU in 1979 and living in Deseret Towers. I also remember that at least one of the windows in my dorm had a pair of crossed tennis rackets in the windows.
I too remember hearing a version of this story while was at BYU in the late 80's to early 90's.
I can just imagine that bishop: "hmm, Sally is suddenly paying more tithing than usual and I don't believe she has a job... she must be a prostitute! Where is my sherlock hat and magnifying glass, I need to get to investigate this matter!"
This sounds like it came from the same bargain bin at the rumor mill as the stories about BYU couples driving to Las Vegas, getting married at a wedding chapel on Friday night, having a weekend of wild sex, and then filing for a "quickie divorce" Monday morning, and returning to school honor code compliant.
Nevermind that the residency requirement for a Nevada divorce was 6 months, which indeed was quick compared to other states at the time, but hardly "Monday morning" quick. And divorces required court dates and lawyers, They were not drive-through operations, even if the weddings were.
The bishop went to investigate, and was extremely thorough; in fact, he didn't leave until 2 a.m. and went back the next night to investigate further....
Reminds me of the BYU stories of "stay moral go oral," and kids going to Vegas to get married for the weekend of fun and then getting divorced. All unverified. What a mess religion makes by getting involved in things that are NONE OF THEOR BUSINESS!