Molly Brown House Museum Reviews

Molly Brown (Margaret Tobin) was born on 18 July 1867,1 in Hannibal, Missouri, the daughter of John Tobin and Johanna Collins (2), both Irish immigrants. The house is open for tours that offer a deeper dive into Margaret's interesting life as a socialite and philanthropist. Historic Denver's Molly Brown House Museum enhances Denver's unique identity by telling the story of Margaret Molly” Brown's activism, philanthropy and passion through educational programs, exhibits, and stewardship.

No one called her Molly during her lifetime — her name was Margaret — and biographer Kristen Iversen, author of "Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth," writes that there's no proof she ever referred to herself as "unsinkable." The nickname seems to have originated with a Denver gossip columnist who may have been mad that Brown gave her account of the Titanic disaster to a newspaper in Newport, R.I., where she also spent time.

My project was originally intended to explore the Gilded Age homes of Mining Age Colorado but, as I visited Denver in the summer of 2013, I was intrigued by the various levels of preservation in different houses and noticed a connection that the best preserved ones were those related to Margaret Brown.

It was considered Colorado's first example of living history” and diversity, according to the biography Molly Brown: Unraveling the Myth by Kristen Iverson. The Molly Brown House is open daily for tours. A new exhibit at the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver's Capitol Hill neighborhood explores Brown's eclectic taste in art, theater and home décor while also highlighting some of the artistic achievements of history her family members.

In 1965, about the same time the musical and movie "The Unsinkable Molly Brown," which starred the late Debbie Reynolds, made her a household name, the Marion County Historical Society purchased the home, restored it and opened it for tours. The great depression took its toll on the Brown fortune, and Maggie, now a widow, was spending most of her time on the East Coast, her Denver home having been converted into a rooming house.

In fact, she never went by Molly” during her lifetime. People think these mining towns are isolated, but they actually had a relatively sophisticated cultural life,” Iversen explains. Which raised money to save Molly Brown's House. The Molly Brown Birthplace and Museum is located in Hannibal, Missouri at the intersection of Mark Twain Avenue and Denkler's Alley.

Celebrated on Broadway and in film as the title character in The Unsinkable Molly Brown (with unsinkable being a reference to her survival as a passenger of the Titanic), Margaret Brown was born in Missouri and moved to Leadville, Colorado , with two of her siblings when she was 18. She later met and married J.J. Brown, and the couple became rich after J.J. devised a method of reaching gold in one of the mines.