Visiting The Unsinkable Molly Brown House

Built in 1887, Molly Brown House is a home of character with a great history and earned popularity. The nickname Molly” came posthumously from a 1960 Broadway play and musical, The Unsinkable Molly Brown.” The play was based on a Denver Post writer's book, and a film adaptation was released in 1964. Based on Margaret Brown's own records and some photos of the property, they have reconstructed what the house looked like when the Browns lived there, using some of their own furnishings as well as antiques from the time.

The docent who guided us throughout the Molly Brown House Museum was knowledgeable and shared lots of fun yet random details of Margaret's life and the history (and conservation of her home). Socialite, philanthropist and activist, she even became the subject of a 1960s Broadway show, The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

That's no small feat for one of Denver's most iconic and heavily visited structures, which welcomes an average of 60,000 people per year and doubles as the birthplace of Historic Denver, the private, nonprofit organization that saved it from demolition nearly a half-century ago.

Upstairs, there's a history copy of Brown's Titanic insurance claim, recording the loss of items including 14 hats, "street furs" and a $20,000 necklace. After attempting to mitigate or correct the legend of "Molly," the Brown family eventually withdrew from the public and refused to speak with writers, reporters, or historians for many years.

Shortly after moving to Leadville, Margaret met James J. (J.J.) Brown at a church picnic. From top to bottom — or rather, from its rock-walled, 1880s basement to the tip of its carriage house's cedar-shingle roof — the Molly Brown House Museum has never looked better.

We encourage you to visit the Museum to lend your support, see the restoration work first-hand, and learn about Denver's own Unsinkable Margaret Brown. Victorian Gardens at the Molly Brown House. Margaret Tobin Brown was born into a hard-working blue collar family with 6 children.

While known for surviving the infamous sinking of the Titanic, Margaret "Molly" Brown was also a leader in the fight for women's suffrage. In 1970 the Brown house was also due for demolition when concerned citizens formed the Historic Denver Inc. As the home of world-renowned Titanic survivor, socialite, philanthropist, early-Denver fashion icon and women's rights activist Margaret Molly” Brown, it was shared with her husband, mining engineer J.J. Brown, and their children Helen and Larry.