As bad as crime was in Smokey Row, it did not adversely affect the life of most Lemonters, since the revelry stayed mostly on three downtown streets. Also, its profits contributed to the welfare of the town through license fees and taxes from the establishments to the tune of $500,000 a year by 1894. Each license cost five hundred dollars, a large sum in those days. The village found itself torn between the money these enterprises brought and the disorder and lawlessness they caused. Without the revenue from Smokey Row, the village of Lemont would not have been able to construct the Village Hall and the school on McCarthy Road, the electric streetlights and street signs, at a time when most of the country was in an economic recession.