After breakfast, we went to see the Molly Brown House Museum. This is the home of Margaret and J.J. Brown, after they struck it rich in the mines in Leadville, Colorado. Molly Brown is most known as the Unsinkable Molly Brown from the Titanic, played by Kathy Bates in the movie, "Titanic", but also the focus of both the play and the movie, "The Unsinkable Molly Brown." As far as anyone can learn, she was never called "Molly" while she was alive. She went by Maggie, so in actuality, she is the most famous real historical person who never existed. I knew about her attempts to rescue more survivors from the Titanic and her fund-raising activities to care for the survivors of the disaster. I had no clue about the rest of her life, but she is now one of my heroes!
She was apparently always a spitfire, which wasn't an issue to her husband until they got wealthy and became part of "society". Maggie continued to be concerned about those less fortunate, was a suffragette, and even ran for a seat on the Senate of the State of Colorado. Before their legal separation, she and J.J. lived in this house on what is now Pennsylvania Street in Denver. The home is lovely and is filled with items that showed wealth
including this alarm system that would tell the house servants not only who was calling for them, but what room that person was in.
Margaret's room had the obligatory fainting couch to catch her if she passed out when her corset was loosened as she undressed and was able to breathe normally again.
J.J.'s room, on the other hand, featured a day bed on which he could take a nap in the afternoon.
Apparently, as time went on, J.J. grew embarrassed of Margaret's feminism and championing the causes of the less privileged. He asked Margaret for a divorce, which she refused. He also took a mistress, who he installed in the home when Margaret began traveling the world. While his mistress, Ms. Farmer, was in the home, she and J.J. ran a secretarial school from it.
It was during this time that Margaret was on the Titanic. She was on her way back to the United States from Europe on the Titanic when it hit the iceberg. Thanks to Broadway and Hollywood, most of us know the story of how Margaret encouraged the members of the lifeboat to go back and search for more survivors and how she raised funds for the survivors and the families of the deceased by going to high society events and threatening to post the names of those wealthy people who refused to donate.
When J.J. passed away, he wanted to be buried with his mistress, but since Margaret was still alive and able to make the decision, she chose for him to be buried in her plot in Westbury, New York, next to her. Based at least in part on her refusal to conform, including her insistence at successfully fighting for what she believed was her share of J.J.'s estate, she was estranged from her children for much of the rest of her life. There are conflicting accounts regarding whether they ever reconciled.
In the ensuing years, the house was used as a home for girls, a finishing school, and various other purposes until Historic Denver, Inc. purchased it and turned it into the Molly Brown House Museum. I'll leave you with more pictures of the Molly Brown house. I apologize for the quality. The lighting was not conducive for pictures and it highlighted my deficiencies as a photographer.
After touring the Molly Brown House, we headed south to Durango with the beauty of the Rocky Mountains as our backdrop.
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