The Brown Palace Hotel, now The Brown Palace Hotel and Spa, Autograph Collection, is a historic hotel in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is the second-longest operating hotel in Denver. It is one of the first atrium-style hotels ever built. It is now operated by HEI Hotels and Resorts, and joined

Marriott Marriott may refer to: People *Marriott (surname) Corporations * Marriott Corporation, founded as Hot Shoppes, Inc. in 1927; split into Marriott International and Host Marriott Corporation in 1993 * Marriott International, international hot ...

Autograph Collection Hotels Autograph Collection is a group of independent upper-upscale to luxury hotels within the Marriott International portfolio. The properties are independently owned and operated under the Autograph Collection name. History To grow in the post-200 ...

in 2012. The hotel is located at 321 17th Street between 17th Street, Broadway and Tremont Place in

downtown Denver Downtown Denver is the main financial, commercial, business, and entertainment district in Denver, Colorado. There is over of office space in downtown Denver, with 132,000 workers. The downtown area consists mostly of the neighborhoods of Uni ...

behind the Republic Plaza. The main entrance door is on Tremont Place.

History

The hotel was built in 1892 of sandstone and red granite, one year later than the Oxford Hotel. It was named for its original owner, Henry C. Brown, who had homesteaded the

Capitol Hill Capitol Hill, in addition to being a metonym for the United States Congress, is the largest historic residential neighborhood in Washington, D.C., stretching easterly in front of the United States Capitol along wide avenues. It is one of the ...

area, and was designed with its distinctive triangular shape by architect Frank Edbrooke, who also designed the Oxford Hotel. The interior and the exterior of the building are considered to be the "finest extant example" of Edbrooke's work. Built with an iron and steel frame covered with cement and sandstone by the Whitehouse & Wirgler Stone Company, the building was "one of America's first fireproof structures, according to a May 21, 1892 cover story in ''Scientific American.''" Upon its completion it was Denver's tallest building. In the early 1930s Colorado muralist Allen Tupper True began discussing the possibility of creating two murals for the hotel with then owner Denver financier Charles Boettcher and after some delay the two works, ''Stage Coach'' and ''Airplane Travel'' were unveiled in the hotel's lobby in 1937. In 1935, as a celebration of the

Repeal of Prohibition in the United States The repeal of Prohibition in the United States was accomplished with the passage of the Twenty-first Amendment to the United States Constitution on December 5, 1933. Background In 1919, the requisite number of state legislatures ratified the Eig ...

, Denver architect

Alan Fisher Alan Fisher may refer to: * Alan Fisher (broadcast journalist) Alan Fisher is a Scottish broadcast journalist and war correspondent. For many years he worked at GMTV, but now works for international news channel Al Jazeera English, where he is ...

designed "Ship Tavern"; one of four restaurants inside The Brown Palace.

Annex

The 22-story, 231-room tower directly across Tremont Place was built as a new wing of the hotel in 1959, known as the Brown Palace West. For many years it operated as a budget wing of the hotel, until the Brown Palace's owners branded the guest rooms in the annex as a Comfort Inn in 1988, and then as a Holiday Inn Express in December 2014. The lower levels of the tower are shared with the Brown Palace, including the Grand Ballroom and executive offices. The tower is connected to the main building by a skybridge over Tremont Place and a service tunnel running under the street.

Past guests

Past guests include the "Unsinkable"

Molly Brown Margaret Brown (née Tobin; July 18, 1867 – October 26, 1932), posthumously known as "The Unsinkable Molly Brown", was an socialite, American socialite and philanthropist. She unsuccessfully encouraged the crew in Lifeboats of the RMS Titanic# ...

(she stayed at the hotel only a week after the ''Titanic'' disaster), infamous Denver crime boss Jefferson "Soapy" Smith, Dr. Sun Yat Sen (just before becoming the president of the new

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeas ...

), Queen Marie of Romania,

John Wayne Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Go ...

, and

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

. Presidential guests include

William Taft William Howard Taft (September 15, 1857March 8, 1930) was the 27th president of the United States (1909–1913) and the tenth chief justice of the United States (1921–1930), the only person to have held both offices. Taft was elected p ...

Warren Harding Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) was the 29th president of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death in 1923. A member of the Republican Party, he was one of the most popular sitting U.S. presidents. A ...

, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower,

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

, and

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

Murders of 1911

The hotel was the site of the high-profile 1911 murders in which Frank Henwood shot and killed Sylvester Louis "Tony" von Phul, and accidentally killed an innocent bystander, George Copeland, in the hotel's "Marble Bar." Henwood and von Phul were rivals for (or shared) the affections of Denver socialite Isabel Springer, the wife of wealthy Denver businessman and political candidate John W. Springer. The murders culminated in a series of very public trials.

Popular culture

The hotel features in the 2017 Jane Fonda and Robert Redford film ''

Our Souls at Night ''Our Souls at Night'' is a 2017 American romantic drama film directed by Ritesh Batra and written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. It is based on the novel of same name by Kent Haruf. The film stars Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Matthias ...

''. The Brown Palace is featured on many of Denver's cultural tours.

Gallery

File:Brown Palace Hotel Atrium Stained Glass Ceiling.jpg, The Brown Palace atrium stained glass ceiling File:Brown Palace Hotel Atrium Balconies.jpg, Historic balconies and interior architecture in atrium of The Brown Palace File:Grand Staircase Detail in Brown Palace Hotel.jpg, Historic staircase detail and interior design in The Brown Palace File:Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, Colorado, USA.jpg, Brown Palace outer facade File:Brown Palace Hotel Exterior Flat Iron Corner Facade.jpg, Standing on the flatiron shaped corner of The Brown Palace, looking up it is easy to see how dramatically angled the building is. File:6408-DenSkyline-BrownPalaceCosmoHotels.Jpg, The Brown Palace and its then-new annex tower, seen in 1964 File:2007-05-04-Brown Palace Hotel.jpg, Brown Palace Interior and Atrium

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:The Brown Palace Hotel and Spa, Autograph Collection (Denver, Colorado) Colorado State Register of Historic Properties Hotels in Denver Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Colorado National Register of Historic Places in Denver Hotel buildings completed in 1889 Autograph Collection Hotels Denver landmarks