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MOLLY BROWN HOUSE MUSEUM
Our 360º Interactive TourScape is for everyone!
FEATURES:
• TourScape Menu for mute, fullscreen, VR, gyroscope & hotspots is found in the top right corner
• Quick Links Menu to Media & Info is in the bottom right corner
• Main Menu access to immersive activities to come!
To keep our visitors, staff and volunteers safe and healthy during the COVID-19 outbreak The Molly Brown House Museum will be temporarily closed beginning March 14.
We will evaluate our need to remain closed on a regular basis so please stay tuned for updates. Visit our events page for updates about specific programs and activities. If you have registered for an upcoming tour or program we are happy to try to reschedule or to waive our usual policy and issue a refund.
Please make a tax-deductible donation to help sustain our organization during this time.
We're grateful for your generosity!
MOLLY BROWN HOUSE MUSEUM
Our 360º Interactive TourScape is for everyone!
FEATURES:
• TourScape Menu for mute, fullscreen, VR, gyroscope & hotspots is found in the top right corner
• Quick Links Menu to Media & Info is in the bottom right corner
• Main Menu access to immersive activities to come!
To keep our visitors, staff and volunteers safe and healthy during the COVID-19 outbreak The Molly Brown House Museum will be temporarily closed beginning March 14.
We will evaluate our need to remain closed on a regular basis so please stay tuned for updates. Visit our events page for updates about specific programs and activities. If you have registered for an upcoming tour or program we are happy to try to reschedule or to waive our usual policy and issue a refund.
Please make a tax-deductible donation to help sustain our organization during this time.
We're grateful for your generosity!
The "Unsinkable" Molly Brown
The "Unsinkable" Molly Brown
Margaret Tobin Brown
Queen City of Plains
With their new money and an already growing circle of friends, the Browns purchased what would become their long-time Denver home on Pennsylvania Avenue (now street) in 1894. By the 1890s, the Denver skyline was filled with hotels, office blocks and looming brick smokestacks. Denver was the point of entry and departure for raw goods and there were smelters on all sides.
The Brown’s move to Denver did not provide an escape from the effects of the Silver Crash as their new city was burdened with social chaos. Slums grew up on the outskirts of downtown. Children especially struggled with poverty and homelessness and drew the attention of progressive reformers. These reformers also drew Margaret’s attention.
The Progressive movement had grown out of the social turmoil created by industrialization and dense urban environments; Margaret joined the reformers to install public baths in the courthouse and advocate for more public parks and other city improvements. She also worked closely with controversial reformer Ben Lindsey, a Denver judge and politician who pioneered the creation of a national juvenile court system.
Margaret’s commitment to social reform grew, and in 1901 she attempted to win a seat in the state senate. This action defied the common maxim, touted by her own husband, which stated that a woman’s name should appear in the newspaper only three times: at her birth, upon her marriage and at her death. Although Margaret withdrew from the race prior to election-day, the experience opened new doors. She had broken with gender conventions and been exposed to the larger political issues that she would actively pursue for another 20 years.
Margaret Tobin Brown
Queen City of Plains
With their new money and an already growing circle of friends, the Browns purchased what would become their long-time Denver home on Pennsylvania Avenue (now street) in 1894. By the 1890s, the Denver skyline was filled with hotels, office blocks and looming brick smokestacks. Denver was the point of entry and departure for raw goods and there were smelters on all sides.
The Brown’s move to Denver did not provide an escape from the effects of the Silver Crash as their new city was burdened with social chaos. Slums grew up on the outskirts of downtown. Children especially struggled with poverty and homelessness and drew the attention of progressive reformers. These reformers also drew Margaret’s attention.
The Progressive movement had grown out of the social turmoil created by industrialization and dense urban environments; Margaret joined the reformers to install public baths in the courthouse and advocate for more public parks and other city improvements. She also worked closely with controversial reformer Ben Lindsey, a Denver judge and politician who pioneered the creation of a national juvenile court system.
Margaret’s commitment to social reform grew, and in 1901 she attempted to win a seat in the state senate. This action defied the common maxim, touted by her own husband, which stated that a woman’s name should appear in the newspaper only three times: at her birth, upon her marriage and at her death. Although Margaret withdrew from the race prior to election-day, the experience opened new doors. She had broken with gender conventions and been exposed to the larger political issues that she would actively pursue for another 20 years.
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The Disc Music Box was popularly produced from the 1880s to the 1920s. Many of the manufacturers were German based firms, among them, Symphonion. The Disc Music Box works with steel tuned combs activated by the projections in specific arrangements, on flat metal discs. As the disc turns, the projections pluck the comb creating the music. Most models are spring wound at this one is. Discs play for about two minutes a piece, and the instrument operates for about 18 minutes on one winding.
2020 photograph courtesy Ecliptic Imagery
To help gain women the right to vote nationally, Margaret joined the Congressional Union for Women’s Suffrage and the Political Equality League. She helped lead and fund national efforts to secure votes for women.
In 1914, Margaret was urged by prominent leaders of the suffrage movement to run for United States Senate. Never before in history had a woman entered the U.S. Senate, and although she would not become Senator, it was hugely significant that she was being urged to do so. “Mrs. Brown for Congress” flooded the papers.
When Mrs. Brown moved into this house in 1894, women in Colorado had achieved the right to vote. Colorado was the first state to pass women’s suffrage by popular vote in 1893, following on the heels of the Wyoming and Utah territories.
Newport was a social hub for the national suffrage movement, and Mrs. Brown enthusiastically joined the efforts. Margaret organized and spoke at notable suffrage meetings including those held at the Vanderbilt Marble House, and in her own Newport cottage, “Mon Etui.”
From 1913 until 1923, Mrs. Brown took up permanent residence in Newport, Rhode Island. Here she found her place in high society and joined the national suffrage movement. She adorned her eastern home in western pelts and Native American-inspired décor to display that she was of two worlds, Denver and Newport.
Links to their websites:
“Mrs. Brown has been one of the most prominent leaders in the woman suffrage movement. [She] is a unique figure in Newport social life, her studio being a rendezvous for people of taste and accomplishment.” – Clipping, 1913-1920, Molly Brown House Museum archives
Helen's letter was transcribed by her son James, 1957, Molly Brown House Museum archives.
The Drawing Room, or Formal Parlor, was only used for grand occasions and receiving visitors. Children were not allowed. The Browns’ daughter Helen reminisced about sneaking in to leave her best French porcelain dolls on the sofa where she thought they were much more at home.
Were any rooms off-limits in your house growing up?
This oil painting, owned by the Brown family, depicts the South Platte River meandering toward the Rocky Mountains. It was made by Helen Henderson Chain, who moved to Denver in 1870 and became one of Colorado’s first female painters of European descent. At a time when painting anything but flowers was seen as unladylike, Chain hiked through the Rockies to paint her subjects en plein air (outdoors).
With Margaret’s beliefs in universal human rights and especially women’s rights, it is no surprise that she supported this early woman artist.
Oil painting by Helen Henderson Chain, 1870-1892, Molly Brown House Museum art collection.
Photo: Helen Henderson Chain, Denver Public Library archives
Note: For our new exhibit, “Fierce Foremothers, Steadfast Suffragists,” the Drawing Room is set for a Votes for Women tea!
When Historic Denver saved the house from certain demolition, restorers gathered documents such as these historic photos taken by Mrs. Brown to ensure restoration was as accurate as possible.
Note: For our new exhibit, “Fierce Foremothers, Steadfast Suffragists,” the Entrance Hall is set to look like Mrs. Brown’s Newport cottage den, where she participated in the suffrage movement!
The Entrance Hall was the first and possibly only room a guest would see, so it was elaborately decorated and provided clues about the family’s social status, education, and interests.
The walls are made of an embossed paper called anaglypta, and were painted gold to reflect the pride the Browns had in J.J.’s tremendous gold strike.
2020 photographs courtesy of Ecliptic Imagery
Margaret Tobin was born in Hannibal, Missouri just after the Civil War ended. Hannibal had been in the middle of a complicated war fought over enslavement.
Her parents John and Johanna Tobin were abolitionists, therefore against slavery, and fostered in their children a belief in universal human rights.
How have your parents shaped your beliefs?
Johanna Tobin, Margaret’s mother, c. 1899, Molly Brown House Museum archives. John Tobin, Margaret’s father, c. 1885, Roberta Hagood collection.
Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, 1911, Library of Congress archives.
In Newport, Margaret Brown worked with Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, founder of the Political Equality League, to organize some of the most notable meetings of the women’s suffrage movement.
Alva Vanderbilt Belmont, 1911, Library of Congress archives.
During the Browns’ residence, this was the home’s only full bathroom and it is the most original room in the house. The wood, subway tiles, and fixtures all date to the home’s 1889 construction. The Brown family used this very bathtub!
Did you know that Margaret Brown was never called “Molly” during her lifetime? She was known as Margaret or Mrs. J. J. Brown. Close friends and family called her Maggie and even Peggy, but never Molly.
After Margaret’s death in 1932, author Gene Fowler embellished on the details of her life and named her Molly in his compilation of short stories, Timber Line. Richard Morris, writer of the 1960 play “The Unsinkable Molly Brown,” engrained the name Molly forever in the minds of fans. He explained, “I chose ‘Molly’ because I liked it better than Margaret or Maggie.”
In 1926, Larry met and married Hollywood actress Mildred Gregory while working for John Gorman Studios in the silent film industry. Eventually Larry and Mildred returned to Leadville where he served as Director of the Colorado Mining Association.
The Browns’ son Larry attended the Colorado School of Mines, following in his father’s footsteps. As it became clear the U.S. would enter the World War, Larry enrolled in officer’s school and was deployed to France as part of the American Expeditionary Forces. In 1919, he was awarded a Victory Medal for helping break the Hindenburg Line, and received an honorable discharge after sustaining injury.
Margaret was taught the importance of education by her parents at a young age, and she encouraged her servants to also become educated. She invited them to join her tutoring lessons, and likely provided them with books and other educational tools.
By 1915, J.J.’s enterprise in Leadville had failed, but he never gave up trying to make another big find like he had with the Ibex Mining Company. He continued to travel extensively, including as far as Cuba and Mexico, for his mining interests.
Although Margaret and J.J. had separated by the time of J.J.’s death in 1922, Margaret said of her late husband, “I’ve never met a finer, bigger more worthwhile man than J.J. Brown… I salute his memory and claim him to have been without peer.”
Margaret’s three nieces from her brother Daniel also lived here in the Denver house after their mother passed away. Margaret ensured their education and upbringing as smart and talented young women. Florence, Grace, and Helen Tobin each went on to be accomplished performers and humanitarians.
Accounts tell us that this large area was originally divided into two rooms. The right half closest to the street was used as a nursery for the Brown children, and the left was living space for the nanny, other staff, or extended family.
Margaret’s parents, John and Johanna Tobin, moved to Leadville after Margaret, and lived here in the Denver home until their deaths. Family stories tell of mother Johanna making a miraculous recovery of health every Sunday morning when it was time for church.
From their balcony, the Browns had a view of the Rocky Mountains and the newly built Capitol Building. The area that would be known as Capitol Hill was originally purchased by Henry C. Brown in the 1860s when the land was all prairie. He donated some of this land to the state to build a Capitol Building, and then sold it to John Smith and George Clayton in 1869.
Fun fact: Pennsylvania and Pearl Streets were named after John Smith’s home state and his granddaughter.
During the mining boom of the 1880s, high-end homes like the Browns’ were built on Capitol Hill while the new state building was being erected. The Browns loved their new home for its modern features including electricity, indoor plumbing and central heating.
The Entrance Hall was the first and possibly only room a guest would see, so it was elaborately decorated and provided clues about the family’s social status, education, and interests.
The walls are made of an embossed paper called anaglypta, and were painted gold to reflect the pride the Browns had in J.J.’s tremendous gold strike.
2020 photographs courtesy of Ecliptic Imagery
Later in life, Margaret spent some of her time living in a suite at Denver’s Brown Palace hotel, but she continued to keep up the Denver home. In 1932, she preordered this new electric Capehart Radio from Knight-Campbell, a local Denver store, to replace her old radio that was “eating holes in her red rug.” The cabinet housed a shortwave radio and a record player with automatic turner and changer.
Margaret passed away later that year and was never able to enjoy the radio, but her daughter-in-law, Mildred, completed the payments and kept it in the family.
This article about the Browns’ servants suffering from food poisoning provides clues about the servants who worked in the home in 1904. At this time they had hired five live-in servants – a stable boy, a cook, two second girls, and a coachman – who all became ill. The Browns converted their servants’ quarters on the third floor into a hospital, and cared for them until well again.
Margaret enrolled in acting school in Paris following the tradition of the famous French actress, Sarah Bernhardt. She played zither and guitar, and studied the art of yodeling in Germany. In 1929, Margaret received the French Palm of the Academy, similar to an Oscar, for her talents.
The Browns’ daughter Helen attended school in France and finished in Germany. After her schooling, she married a publisher named George Benziger and they settled in New York. They had two sons, James and Peter.
Later in life Helen remarked that, “When Larry and I were young, we thought we had the best mother in Denver.”
When Margaret passed away and left the Denver home to her children, the world was impacted by the Great Depression. In addition to selling the house in 1933, her children auctioned off every piece of furniture and décor from the home.
The majority of items from the estate sale have been lost, but thanks to family descendants, Margaret’s renters, and other donors, the museum has recovered many original Brown family artifacts, including this four-poster bed seen in the 1910 photograph.
Newspapers reported that a small orchestra played out on this balcony during Margaret’s 1910 garden party to which she invited 800 guests. She also practiced and performed yodeling on this balcony. She was known as “a remarkable yodeler” after taking lessons for two years in Germany from “one of the finest teachers in the world.”
The Browns were a philanthropic couple, each championing a variety of causes. In December of each year, J.J. presented the boys at St. Vincent’s Orphan Asylum with Christmas gifts. J.J. reportedly felt he owed these children something for the loss of their fathers in the mines.
J.J. was known to be the caretaker of the family. He worked hard to provide a prosperous life for his wife, children, grandchildren, siblings, and many members of the extended family.
To run his extensive mining business, J.J. kept offices in Denver and Leadville, and worked from home. He never gave up on making another big find in Leadville like he had with the Ibex Mining Company.
The Browns owned this set of Cyclopaedias as part of their ongoing education. Margaret hired tutors in both Leadville and Denver to teach her art, music, and language. She spoke French, Italian, German, and Russian as well as some Gaelic and Greek.
“Shouldn’t a passion for knowledge count for something in one’s own development?” – Margaret Brown, 1922
In 1932, Margaret received the French Legion of Honor for her work during WWI with the American Red Cross. She also helped rehabilitate blinded soldiers by creating a school for them to learn Braille. She had the works of fellow Missourian Mark Twain translated into Braille for the soldiers to read.
What could you do to help others during a troubling time?
In this hand-drawn plan of the first floor by daughter Helen, she labelled this room “Father’s Room.” She recalled that her father and grandfather, John Tobin, often sat in this room to discuss mining and politics, “and the many other things they saw eye-to-eye on.”
Do you remember the layout of your childhood home?
As you explore the significant achievements of Margaret Tobin Brown, consider what you can do in your lifetime, either big or small, to help those around you.
When Margaret made the bold choice to consider a bid for the U.S. Senate in 1914, she explained, “If I do go to the Senate, I shall naturally be specifically interested in all matters relating to women and children. In general, I shall stand for the human side of every question.”
10 miles southwest of the Museum, the Browns’ summer retreat still stands, built by J.J. Brown in 1897. They called it “Avoca Lodge,” as a nod to Avoca, Ireland and Avoca, Pennsylvania where J.J. grew up.
Avoca was where J.J. fulfilled his true passion for farming out in the country. He raised horses, fowl and fruit on the original 400 acres of land that included their 4,600 square-foot summer house, a brick barn, a two-story chicken house, a shed with walk-in refrigeration, and a fish pond.
In one of the more candid photographs ever taken of Margaret Brown, it is easy to imagine her preparing for one of her many parties and functions. These affairs often served as fundraisers for Margaret and J.J.’s favorite causes.
What important causes do you like to support?
After about 1910, the Browns spent most of their time in other homes across the country and Margaret hired Ella Grable to manage the Denver house and its renters. Margaret bequeathed many items to Mrs. Grable including this chocolate pot, which was donated back to the Museum by Mrs. Grable’s descendant.
Painted porcelain chocolate pot, Nippon or Haviland, 1890-1910, MBHM collections.
The Museum has recovered many original Brown family artifacts which can be found on display. This silverware was given back to its original home by descendants of one of Margaret’s renters. As part of a settlement with Margaret in 1920, her renter Bessie Cosgriff purchased “all rugs, all books, all silverware, all chinaware, all statuary and pedestals” from the Brown family home. The silverware and bookcases from this settlement are now part of the Museum’s permanent collections.
Margaret was particularly interested in children’s welfare. Through the Denver Club she helped build playgrounds and orphanages, and she was a major contributor to the work of Judge Benjamin Barr Lindsey, the man who started Denver’s Juvenile Court System. With Margaret’s help he was able to open a day care and playgrounds for poor children, and a juvenile detention home to keep children out of adult jails.
Margaret wrote many articles that were published in the Denver Times and other newspapers. She wrote mostly about her experiences traveling the world, including her recollections of surviving the Titanic disaster in 1912.
The same year she announced she would be writing an autobiography, and years later she submitted at least part to a New York publishing company. Unfortunately it was never published and any record of it has been lost to history.
Photo 1:
J. J. Brown’s deed to the Little Jonny (Johnny) Mining Claim, 1893, History Colorado Center archives
Photo 2:
Ibex Mining Company’s first dividend to J. J. Brown, 1892, History Colorado Center archives
Photo 3:
J. J. Brown’s Leadville mining claims, 1912, History Colorado Center archives
Photo 4:
Check fragment from J. J. Brown, 1898, History Colorado Center archives
The library was meant to showcase the Browns’ education. Margaret continued her education by attending classes at the Carnegie Institute when they opened up a women’s college. Both the Browns’ children attended schools here in Denver as well as in Europe.
Margaret’s husband J.J. Brown rose up in Leadville’s mining ranks and was brought on to a new endeavor with the IBEX Mining Company. J.J. lent his engineering skills, and in 1892, the group found the largest vein of gold in U.S. history at the Little Johnny mine.
As 1/5 owners of the Little Johnny, the Browns quietly amassed a considerable fortune.
J.J. photo caption: James Joseph “J.J.” Brown, 1910, Denver Public Library archives
Mine photo caption: Little Johnny Mine, “World’s Richest Gold Mine,” 1916, Denver Public Library archives
In 1914, Alva Vanderbilt Belmont commissioned a Chinese Tea House to overlook Newport’s seaside cliffs. Architects Hunt and Hunt modeled the picturesque tea house after twelfth century Song dynasty temples in southern China.
Alva inaugurated her new tea house with a Chinese Ball in 1914. She invited Newport high society to dance and mingle in Chinese costume. The tea house’s grass covered floor was strewn with Persian carpets and innumerable paper lanterns were hung among Chinese blossoms and palms.
Mary Mulligan was hired on by the Brown family as a maid and personal seamstress for Margaret. She traveled with the Browns on their around-the-world trip to India, China, and Japan. According to a Brown family descendant, Margaret called Mary Mulligan her “best friend.”
With their new wealth, the Browns purchased this fashionable and modern home in 1894 in the up-and-coming Capitol Hill neighborhood. The house had all of the modern conveniences, including electricity, hot and cold running water, central heat, and a telephone.
What will the houses we live in today say to future generations?
Historic Denver is forever grateful to Art Leisenring, final owner of 1340 Pennsylvania Street, and founder of Historic Denver, Inc.
Mr. Leisenring purchased the home in 1958 and ran it as a boarding house. Witnessing the rapid re-development of his neighborhood, he knew his “House of Lions,” the former home of the “Unsinkable” Margaret Brown, was in danger of demolition. To save the house and restore it to its former glory, Mr. Leisenring gathered together concerned citizens to form Historic Denver, Inc.
The mining boom and completion of the Transcontinental Railroad opened up the West to new opportunities. At the age of 19, Margaret stepped off of the train in Leadville, Colorado to join her brother Daniel.
This portrait was taken in Leadville a few years later. Margaret had met and married a well-educated and charming mine superintendent, James Joseph, or “J.J.” Brown. They had two children, Lawrence Palmer, “Larry,” and Catherine Ellen, “Helen.”
Margaret and J.J. Brown with children Larry and Helen, Leadville, 1893, History Colorado Center archives
As you explore the significant achievements of Margaret Tobin Brown, consider what you can do in your lifetime, either big or small, to help those around you.
“Some people smirked when I brought home ancient statuary from Egypt and decorated up a few acres of the Rocky Mountains for my home, but I am sure that those who know the place will agree that culture knows no boundaries and that fine arts are international.” – Margaret Brown, Paris newspaper clipping, January 20th, 1929.
Historic Denver exists so that Denver’s unique identity, cultural landmarks, and historic places are thoughtfully maintained, actively used and relevant for all generations.