A Trip to: Denver, CO

The Brown Palace Hotel

Henry wanted to keep heading west, but Mrs. Brown wanted to stay in Denver.  Mr. Brown looked for a piece of land to settle. Water (or the lack of it) was a huge consideration. Brown eventually discovered a parcel of land that had an Artesian (underground) well. He promptly filed a homesteader's claim for 16 acres. Brown had a lot of foresight and realized that with Colorado becoming a state, there would be more interest in Denver - and more visitors to it. He wanted to build a hotel on the land.

In order to get permission to do that, Brown struck a deal with some of the local legislators. Knowing that they were looking for land to build a state capital, he promised to give them 10 acres of his land for that purpose, if they would allow him to build the hotel. The deal was struck. Brown built his hotel and accessed the precious Artesian well water located 700' below ground.

Our guide explained that Brown wanted to build a palace. He wanted his hotel to be luxurious and a place prominent people would frequent. Brown's Palace Hotel is a good example of Victorian architecture based on the Italian Renaissance style. He built it using the finest materials including Mexican onyx and Italian marble.

Every U.S. President has been a guest at the Brown Palace hotel with the single exception of Calvin Coolidge.

Our guide encouraged us to take an independent walking tour of this unique hotel.

We walked into the Churchill Bar that contained a complete set of French military band figures. They were carved from wood by a French hat and dollmaker who created them while imprisoned by the English during the Napoleonic wars. The costumes were made from scraps of uniform collected from fellow prisoners. At this point we heard a voice call out, "Have you seen the Napoleon weapon collection?" A friendly young woman in chef garb was smiling and beckoning us to enter the Palace Arms dining room. We followed her into the dining room where we saw replicas of flags that were prominent during the exploration of the North American continent and of battle units in the American Revolution. French prints enhanced the room's Napoleonic theme. Our chef-guide showed us dueling pistols and a bridle thought to have belonged to Napoleon. She pointed to two papier-mâché golden eagles that were parade decorations during Napoleon's march from the Arc de Triomphe to Notre Dame to crown himself Emperor and explained that they are the only ones still in existence.

The Brown Palace Hotel
Location: 321 Seventeenth Street, Denver, Colorado 80202
Phone: 1-800-321-2599 or (303) 297-3111

Next Location - The Molly Brown & the Titanic >>