Molly Brown House

Last weekend we thought we would start getting to know Denver. We were off to a late start and since all of the kid-oriented places seemed to require a full day we made mommy happy and went the historical route instead. The aquarium, butterfly place, children's museum etc. will have to wait. I'm glad we did something - on Wednesday I hit 36 weeks and a wall. I'm really waddling now.
The house was rescued from destruction in the 70's and they have pictures of what it looked like before it was restored. There were photos taken of the interior when Molly (Margaret, she was not known as "Molly" during her lifetime but was called Maggie by her friends) lived there. The house looked almost identical to the photos from Molly's time. Molly lived in the house, excluding her many travels, from 1894 until her death in 1932. The pictures were taken in 1910, I think, around that time anyway. It was pretty bare in 1970 and pretty gaudy in 1910 (the style at the time). Of course, I'm still glad that they were true to the time period even if I'm not a fan.

It is remarkable how they were able to find furniture around Denver that had belonged to her or to get it on permanent loan from the Brown descendants. They also were able to order the same wallpaper that she had (still being produced by the same company!!!) in many of the rooms. Abby found the old refrigerator and electric washer interesting (the rest of the tour the girls were a little restless, luckily admission was free for those under 6).
The house seemed large to me but the tour guide informed us that many people come through expecting the house from the movie (The Unsinkable Molly Brown with Debbie Reynolds as Molly). They think there will be a huge ballroom etc.
For changing hands and being split into apartments at one time the house is in excellent shape. You can see the sandstone porch behind the girls is slowly eroding away. Luckily the house is not sandstone. I think swinging on this swing was the second favorite part of the tour for the girls. #1 goes too....






trying on period hats and looking through the stereoscope. I have to admit I found the hats fun too. The purple hat was definitely the favorite- many of the other hats aren't pictured for this reason.