Brown Palace

The Brown

Pinnacle of Extravagance

Description

In 1860, a carpenter turned entrepreneur from Ohio named Henry Cordes Brown arrived in Denver after various trips around the globe. With a growing involvement with real estate, Brown purchased much of the land in Denver including the land at the capital building and the triangular lot at the corners of Broadway, Tremont and 17th street where he kept his cows for grazing. Around the same time that Brown was investing in land in and around Denver, Denver was quickly attracting people headed west seeking for Silver and Gold prospected out of the mountains. Brown turned to capitalize on this new revelation of Denver's growing numbers by building an extravagant hotel to rival the country's most elite hotels. He hired architect Frank E. Edbrooke, who took the triangular lot at Broadway, 17th, and Trenton and spent the next four years working on what eventually would be called the Brown Palace, and spared no expense in building the lavish icon of the Mile High City. An estimated $1.6 million was spent on the construction and furnishing of the hotel including the decadent use of Onyx used throughout the building. On August 12, 1892 the hotel opened its doors to the public who could rent a room for between $3 and $5 a night. For the nearly 120 years that the Brown palace has been open, they have opened their doors continuously day and night and have hosted a number of distinguished guests including every single US President since Teddy Roosevelt with the exception of Calvin Coolidge, and a 1964 visit by the Beatles. The Brown Palace today is still considered the pinnacle of class of this western city.