Dinner at the Brown Palace
I just read a murder mystery, "Murder At the Brown Palace." I always have been intrigued with that great hotel in Denver. It was built in about 1890, probably the first hotel in the nation at that time.
Herb Thorp, a Marion financier back in the late 1900s built the beautiful stone and yellow brick mansion on the west side of Elm Street at the top of the hill. He and his wife and three children had just moved in when he died of a heart attack. It was said that he could eat a half gallon of ice cream at a sitting.
One child was a teenage boy and he and I had a sort of summertime romance. He asked me to come to his home to teach him to dance. Of course, I went. The south room was a large sun parlor with tile floor and a beautiful fountain in the center. That is where the dance lessons took place, with his older sister chaperoning.
Later in the summer, Mrs. Thorp sold the house and took her family to Denver. I remember going to the depot in Florence where they took the train for Denver. The son and I managed a shy goodbye kiss.
In Denver they lived in the Brown Palace Hotel. The son and I exchanged letters for awhile so I learned to address mail to the Brown Palace. Mrs. Thorp lived there until her death at age 96.
I think it was on my 80th birthday that I reserved rooms at the Brown Palace for my children and their spouses over a weekend.
What a grand hotel! On the third floor there was a balcony that encircled the huge room and you could look down on the elegant lounge below.
My birthday dinner was held in a wonderful room where there was a fine dance band. The men in the group twirled me around a few times. When I started to blow out the candles on the cake, my long strand of pearls (fake) got caught in the frosting and the dignified, elegantly attired waiter helped to extricate me.
We visited the hotel bar, "Ship's Tavern." There is where the murders took place. Wish I had read the book first. That would have made it more exciting.
— NORMA HANNAFORD
