[Michael.SF.]

So many versions of that song! Thanks

Bob Dylan first heard it from a guy named Dave Van Ronck, who was a modest celeb in the village at the time. Later Van Ronck researched the song and learned it was really about a womans reformatory in New Orleans. He was not 100% sure, but the story fit, as the reformatory had a rising sun on the front gate and was known as the "house of the rising sun".

[Fiji Hill]

Later Van Ronck researched the song and learned it was really about a womans reformatory in New Orleans.

I haven't heard that story, but it sounds plausible. The song almost certainly goes way back before 1933.