16 minute read
Denver's Grande Dame - The Brown Palace Hotel
Story and photos by Kris Grant
Downtown Denver is a long way to go for afternoon tea, but couple it with a stay at the historic Brown Palace Hotel & Spa and you’ve got a memorable life experience.
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I knew I had to visit The Brown Palace when I watched a Netflix movie, “Our Souls at Night,” starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. The movie came out in 2018 and was based on a book of the same name I had picked up a couple of years earlier at Bay Books. Kent Haruf’s story centered on two senior citizens, both widowed, who were neighbors but hardly knew each other. They strike up a platonic friendship, and over the course of a summer, it turns into love, particularly when Louis Waters (Redford) suggests to Addie Moore (Fonda) that they get away to The Brown Palace in Denver.
The Brown Palace is a unique property in many ways, not the least of which is its shape, triangular, constructed of unique red sandstone at Seventeenth Street, Broadway and Tremont. At the time of its construction in 1892, it was the tallest, grandest building in the city. Today, it may no longer be the tallest, but I think it still ranks as the grandest.
My room on the seventh floor was at the rounded apex of the building, with windows affording views of the downtown skyscape and Trinity Church across the street. The interiors, done in a post-modern style, were stunning. In fact, everything about the hotel, with its soaring nine-floor atrium and stained glass ceiling above, allowing natural light to cascade throughout, was breathtaking.
Upon my late Saturday night arrival after driving through a thunderstorm, I decided to unwind with a Manhattan and light meal in the Ship Tavern. Like my room, it was at “the bow” of the hotel. The Ship Tavern opened in 1934 after the repeal of prohibition making it the oldest restaurant in the hotel. The décor includes a complete mast and crow’s nest, an old ship’s clock, Jamaican rum barrels, and a collection of sailing ship models. I loved the rich woods, deeply upholstered booths and classic long bar. Best of all, the Tavern’s longtime and beloved pianist John Kite played well loved favorites by Cole Porter and others, and one of my favorites, “Con Te Partiro” made famous by Andrea Bocelli. It was going to be a great stay…
I also ate breakfast at Ellyngton’s, and enjoyed my eggs Benedict and its impeccable service. In the hours before it opened, I also toured the Churchill Bar, an iconic smoking lounge, where gentlemen (and ladies) can gather for cocktails and a selection of over 60 cigars in its customized humidor. Next door, the Palace Arms offers fine dining with a backdrop of Napoleonic artifacts.
Now back to “Our Souls at Night.” The film captures Addie and Louis’s visit to the hotel much as Haruf wrote it:
“Their room was on the third floor and they could look over the railing down to the open courtyard below and see the piano player and people sitting at tables taking tea and drinking cocktails and the waiter moving back and forth from the bar and as the night approached the guests going into the bar or into the restaurant with its white tablecloths and gleaming glasses and silverware. They went down and ate in the restaurant and then came back upstairs and Addie put on one of the expensive dresses she’d brought just to wear in Denver.”
Fonda looks dazzling in a gold lame dress and Redford does a double take. Later, they are shown slow dancing, ever closer.
Fonda and Redford filmed their scenes at the hotel in October 2016; film trucks dominated the streetscape but the public was kept in the dark about the stars’ appearances. Meanwhile, inside, the atrium was filled with the brightest stage lights one employee had ever seen.
Time for Tea!
I arrived for my afternoon tea at the appointed time, 2 p.m., and was seated between a gathering of ladies with lovely hats at a corner table and a couple from Colorado Springs. A pianist seated at the grand piano in one corner of the lounge filled the atrium with recognizable melodies… tunes by Gershwin, the Beatles, Mozart and even “My Heart Will Go On” from the movie, Titanic, so appropriate since another Brown, the unsinkable one, (no relation to the hotel’s owner) often dined at the hotel.
My server assisted me in choosing just the right tea. From the dizzying menu of teas that included specialty green teas, organic black teas, organic herbal teas and specialty organic peach blossom and organic tropical coconut. I chose the vanilla bean black tea, a malty smooth-bodied tea from the Yunnan province of southwest China, bordering on Tibet. It was heavenly on its own, and a perfect accompaniment to the taste treats that she next delivered on a three-tiered serving tray. These included finger sandwiches, scones and an exquisite selection of classic pastries and tarts. Sides of rich Devonshire cream, shipped directly from England, and lemon curd accompanied the tower of decadent delights. I whiled away the next hour and a half in sheer bliss, listening to classics in a space that reminded me of an intimate living room, with its deep carpet, crystal lamps and fresh floral centerpiece. All in all, it was a most pleasant experience.
Hotel del Coronado was conceived by two retired, mid-western businessmen, Elisha Babcock, Jr., and Hampton Story, who became acquainted after moving to San Diego. Story had made a fortune in his Chicago-based Story and Clark piano manufacturing company and Babcock, hailing from a well-healed family in Evansville, Indiana amassed his fortune from several endeavors including the Evansville and Terra Haute Railroad, the Bell Telephone Company and the Eugene Ice Company. In 1885, the entrepreneurs bought the entire undeveloped peninsula of Coronado, subdivided the land, sold off the lots, recouped their investment, and proceeded to build what they envisioned would be the “talk of the western world.”
But then a depression hit and the partners turned to a new investor who came calling on San Diego from his home in San Francisco. John D. Spreckels’ fortune came from the Spreckels Sugar Company founded by his father, “Sugar King” Claus Spreckels. John D. oversaw all the sugar holdings, many on the island of Maui, and further developed a steamship line that had
as one of its customers, the U.S. government mail service. Spreckels, who was already investing in San Diego’s wharf area, provided generous loans to the business partners. They eventually transferred complete ownership to Spreckels, and Babcock stayed on as hotel manager.
Henry Cordes Brown came to Denver in 1860, and purchased 160 acres of land for $200 at the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek through the Homestead Act.
William H. Bush and his English friend James Duff were the original builders of the Brown Palace. Bush and Duff only got so far as excavating the hotel’s foundation in 1888, when they ran out of capital. Bush then turned to Brown, who had provided the provisional contract for the land, to build the hotel. Bush agreed to manage the construction and the hotel opened on August 12, 1892 as the H. C. Brown Palace.
Just as Spreckels kept Elisha S. Babcock on to manage the Hotel del Coronado in its first years, Henry Brown chose William H. Bush to co-manage the Brown Palace.
In contrast to Hotel del Coronado, which was constructed entirely of wood, most of it redwood delivered from the Pacific Northwest by barge to the island, the Brown Palace has no wood in its construction. The hotel’s exterior is red sandstone upon a granite foundation framed with wrought iron and steel columns. All floors and partition walls were built of hollow blocks of porous terra cotta and surfaced with fireproof cement.
Shortly after the construction contract of the Brown Palace was signed, an onyx mine was discovered by the Denver Onyx and Marble Manufacturing Company, so onyx was used for the hotel’s interior paneling, some 12,400 square feet of the stone. Copper-finished railings on each floor lend an effect of antique-finished copper.
Unique interior features of the Brown Place at the time of its opening included steam heat, the largest private electric plant in Colorado, and an ice machine capable of making five tons of ice a day.
Much like John Spreckels, who controlled San Diego’s streetcars, owned the San Diego Union-Tribune newspapers, and nearly the entire infrastructure of Coronado, Brown’s business affairs permeated every segment of Denver’s business enterprises. As Spreckels tried for years to get a railroad to service San Diego, Brown, as a charter member of the Denver Board of Trade, helped ensure that the Denver Pacific, would be the first railroad into the city. Spreckels failed; Brown succeeded.
When the territorial legislature in 1867 decided that Denver rather than Golden should be the territorial capital, Brown quickly stepped forward to donate 10 acres of his land for the Capitol site. While the territory never did build a Capitol, the State eventually did on Brown’s donated parcel.
A year after the Brown Palace opened, the Silver Panic wiped out many Colorado fortunes, including Brown’s. He was now seventy-four. His first two wives had died and he married for the third time, this time to a 19-year-old grocery store clerk. They divorced six years later and the young lady remarried soon thereafter. But Brown turned out to be quite honorable, calling on the newlyweds and wishing them every happiness.
Henry Brown died, coincidentally in San Diego, (I can’t help but wonder if it might actually have been in Coronado) in 1906. It was the same year that the San Francisco earthquake sent John and Lillian Spreckels and their four children to move permanently to Coronado. Spreckels died in 1928 and his family continued to own the Hotel del Coronado until 1948.
Presidential and Celebrity Visits
Beginning with Theodore Roosevelt, every president, apart from four (Calvin Coolidge, Barack Obama, Donald Trump and Joe Biden) has visited the Brown Palace.
Today, three Presidential suites honor presidents who have visited the hotel, each decorated in the era of the president for whom it is named. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who married the former Mamie Dowd, a native of Denver who was a debutante years earlier at the ball held annually to this day at the Brown Palace, made the hotel his home during his presidential campaign. He and Mamie stayed at the hotel many times during his presidency. His suite is done in a Federalist style honoring his White House years. The Reagan Suite evokes President Ronald Reagan’s Santa Barbara Ranch and love of Western life, and President Theodore Roosevelt’s suite done in an Edwardian style features a safari theme.
At the Hotel del, the first Presidential visit was in 1891 when President Benjamin Harrison had breakfast at the hotel. Franklin D. Roosevelt, attending San Diego’s California Pacific International Exposition in 1935, flew his Presidential flag at the hotel, making the hotel the official White House during his stay.
President Richard M. Nixon hosted a state dinner in the hotel’s historic Crown Room for Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz on Sept. 3, 1970. Among the 1,000 people in attendance were former President and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson and Governor and Mrs. Ronald Reagan. Aside from political luminaries, the dinner was also attended by celebrities such as Frank Sinatra and John Wayne.
Additionally, Presidents Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have all visited the Del, as did Michelle Obama, while campaigning for her husband’s Presidential bid.
In 1912, while campaigning for President on the Bull Moose Party ticket, Theodore Roosevelt returned to the Brown Palace. From the book, The Brown Palace, Denver’s Grand Dame
The Eisenhowers turned the Brown Palace’s Presidential Suite into a home. Here Ike joined in the fun at a Children’s party at the Brown Palace hosted by the American Legion. From the book, The Brown Palace, Denver’s Grand Dame
Both hotels have had a long list of celebrity visits. The Beatles stayed at the Brown Palace on August 26, 1964, the night they were to perform at 8:30 p.m. at Red Rocks Amphitheater. Weeks before their visit, the hotel was besieged with job seekers, almost all female teenagers, who applied for jobs as maids in hopes that they’d get a glimpse of their idols.
Although the Beatles weren’t to arrive until mid-afternoon, crowds of teenagers began arriving early in the morning, at one point numbering five thousand. Yet they never saw the mop tops, who slipped into the hotel at a service entrance and were whisked up to their floor via a service elevator. Sadly, their set at Red Rocks was just 25 minutes long; two of the fab four had come down with altitude sickness!
And, of course, the biggest celebrity event in the history of Hotel del Coronado was the 1958 filming of Some Like It Hot. There are still locals who were there, lining the rope lines on the Del beach where Marilyn Monroe filmed a scene with Tony Curtis. Jack Lemmon was also in the cast, all directed by the legendary Billy Wilder.
Ronald Reagan and his family often visited the Hotel del Coronado for vacations, including his time as California Governor.
Photo courtesy Hotel Del Coronado.
President Bill Clinton invited Russian President Boris Yeltsin to join the Summit of Seven, making it a Summit of Eight, at the Brown Palace in 1997.
From the book, The Brown Palace, Denver’s Grand Dame
Much To Do In Denver!
Your stay at the Brown Palace is ideally situated to take in many of the sites of Downtown Denver. Here are some starters!
The Colorado State Capitol
If you think the Colorado State Capitol looks a lot like our nation’s Capitol, you’re right. It was intentionally designed in that style. It is constructed of Colorado White Granite and has a distinctive dome of gold leaf, added in 1908, to commemorate the Colorado Gold Rush. Inside, you’ll see the entire world’s supply of Rose Onyx, mined in Beulah, Colorado, and creamy white floors of Yule marble also from Colorado. Colorado held a design contest to select the architect. Construction began in 1886 under the direction of winning architect E. E. Myers who had designed the state Capitols in Texas and Michigan. His contract fee was tied to the cost of materials, and as those costs soared, so did his commission, and he was eventually fired. He was replaced by the second place finisher, Frank Edbrooke, a prominent Denver architect who also designed the Brown Palace. The Capitol opened in November 1894. The original construction budget was $1 million and estimated to take four years; it ultimately cost $3.7 million and took at least eight years; more, if you count the dome. In 2008, the Capitol was LEED-certified to the Gold level and is the only state capitol so designated. The Capitol building is the first state capitol in the country to be cooled by geothermal power, completed in 2013.
Free guided tours are available MondayFriday at 10 and 11 a.m., 1 and 2 p.m. Tours are limited to 20 people on a firstcome, first-served basis. All tours begin at the Visitor Information Desk, north side, first floor. Capitol tours take about an hour and include an optional trip to the dome observation area.
File this under silly: The 15th step on the West side of the Capitol is engraved with the words “One Mile Above Sea Level.” However, a second mile-high marker was set in 1969 when Colorado State students resurveyed the elevation. Then, in 2003, more modern methods were employed and the 13th step was identified as being one mile high and a third marker was installed!
www.capitol.colorado.gov
Red Rocks Amphitheatre
Some day I hope to take in a concert in this gorgeous open-air setting among red sandstone cliffs! It’s also open to the public to hike the 640-acres that surround the amphitheatre. There’s a 30,000 square foot visitor center that is a Hall of Fame for performers who’ve entertained there and also documents the geological history of the area. The venue seats up to 9,525. It’s located in Morrison, Colorado, about 10 miles west of Denver.
www.redrocksonline.com
The Molly Brown House Museum
The first thing you need to know is that Margaret Tobin Brown was never known by the name Molly during her lifetime. No, that was an invention of tabloid journalists in 1929 (calling her “Mollie”) and was further cemented by the 1960 motion picture, “The Unsinkable Molly Brown.”
Margaret Brown was the daughter of Irish immigrants, born in Hannibal, Missouri. She began working in a factory there at age 13. But she joined the flow of migrants with her brother, Daniel, who moved to Leadville, Colorado, silver country at the time. There she worked in a department store and met and married J. J. Brown, a mining engineer of modest means who hit gold. The Browns were suddenly millionaires.
They soon moved to Denver purchasing the house of their dreams (now the Molly Brown House) and Margaret began intensive philanthropic work, advocating for
public baths in courthouses (most people did not have access to private bathing facilities) and more public parks; she also helped establish a separate juvenile court system. After 23 years of marriage, she and her husband separated (but never divorced). Margaret grew ever more independent and traveled extensively. After the Titanic
disaster, she become active in the Women’s Suffrage Movement and lobbied for labor reform. After World War I broke out, she shifted her focus to relief efforts, and moved to France, working with the American Committee for Devastated France. She ultimately earned the French Legion of Honor.
www.mollybrown.org
The Denver Art Museum
Photo by James Florio
This is one of the largest museums between Chicago and the West Coast and houses more than 70,000 works of art in 12 collections.
I particularly liked the Western Art collection with paintings by Thomas Hill and Thomas Moran and Frederick Remington sculpture. And, the architecture and design section was fascinating with works by Charles and Ray Eames, Gio Ponti (who also designed the museum’s North Building), Robert Venturi, Michael Graves,
Frank Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry. It also includes several pieces of Ruskin Pottery, named after a founding director of the Arts & Crafts movement. John Ruskin. www.Denverartmuseum.org
