Hotel History: Brown Palace Hotel, rooms. Edbrooke More than wrought iron grillwork panels ring the lobby from the third through the seventh floors. Two of them are upside down, one to serve the tradition that man is imperfect; the other sneaked in by a disgruntled workman.
The Brown Palace was built on a cow pasture by Henry Cordes Brown, a carpenter who had driven an oxcart across the country and arrived at Cherry Creek in Kansas territory in He built homes, stores and churches on most of it and gave a parcel to the state for a site for the State Capitol. Brown decided to build a hotel that would put the Windsor to shame while allowing cowboy attire.
Because no wood was used for the floors and walls, the hotel was celebrated as the second fireproof building in America. Architect Frank E. Artist James Whitehouse was commissioned to create 26 medallions carved in stone, each depicting a native Colorado animal. For the interior, Edbrooke designed an atrium lobby with the balconies rising eight floors above ground surrounded by cast iron railings with ornate grillwork panels. All the furniture was solid wood in white mahogany, antique oak and cherry.
Chairs and sofas were covered in silk. Each guestroom had its own fireplace with kindling and coal provided by bellboys. At opening the hotel was known as the H. Brown Palace. Henry Brown died in San Diego, California in at the age of The story involves high society, adultery, drugs and multiple murders. Beginning in , every president since Theodore Roosevelt has visited the hotel except Calvin Coolidge.
President Dwight Eisenhower was such a frequent guest that the hotel was called the western White House. Every year since , the hotel lobby is the site of the Stock Show championship when a fifteen hundred to two thousand-pound steer is on exhibit. Almost every Denver resident has a story of a birthday, anniversary, wedding or other affair held at the Brown Palace.
