FREE
Week of October 27, 2022
DENVER, COLORADO
A publication of
VOLUME 95 | ISSUE 49
Brown Palace Hotel fascinates in-house historian Survey shows veteran homelessness decreased 31% BY TATIANA FLOWERS THE COLORADO SUN
Historic displays line the Brown’s eight-story atrium, which is crowned with a stained-glass ceiling 100 feet above. Here, visitors enjoy PHOTO BY TIM COLLINS afternoon tea along with the music of Danny Showers, who has played at the hotel for more than 40 years.
Debra B. Faulkner relishes her job at hotel packed with Colorado history, personalities and ghosts BY KIRSTEN DAHL COLLINS SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
Under the eaves of the historic Brown Palace Hotel, historian Debra B. Faulkner works out of a cramped office with a rooftop view of the HVAC equipment. She wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. “It’s my dream job,” she said. “Super fun.” Filing cabinets crowd the space, filled with yellowed guest registers dating back to the hotel’s opening
in 1892. In that era, the guests were “checked in” with actual check marks. The signatures from 1908 include HRH Prince of Wales, the future George the Fifth. President Woodrow Wilson signed the book in 1911. In 1912, Margaret “Molly” Brown — no relation to the hotel’s founder, Henry Cordes Brown — requested a sixth-floor room, since she had just escaped the Titanic disaster in Lifeboat No. 6. Faulkner said it’s unusual for a hotel to have a dedicated historian — but then, the Brown Palace is no ordinary hotel. Like a Denver version of the British Museum, the red sandstone edifice on 17th Street is stuffed with history. In 1937, Work Projects Administration-era artist Allen Tupper True created the murals in the elevator lobby, still stunning — though darkened with age. Glass cases lining the hotel’s eight-
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 12 | LIFE: PAGE 14 | CALENDAR: PAGE 11
story atrium document the glamorous big band era, when Ellyngton’s restaurant served as a nightclub. The Palace Arms, the Brown’s formal restaurant, displays authentic items from Napoleon’s campaigns, including a plumed hat and period swords. In the restaurant’s private dining room, the exquisite Frenchmade wallpaper dates from 1834. The Ship Tavern, which opened after Prohibition in 1934, celebrates maritime history with a collection of hand-carved models of 19th-century clipper ships. A magnet for the famous Life at the Brown is rarely dull, in part because of all the celebrities who keep checking in. Multitudes of Hollywood stars have visited, from Zsa Zsa Gabor to George Clooney.
The number of veterans who are homeless in metro Denver decreased more than 30% from 2020 to 2022, despite an overall increase in the region’s homeless population, according to new survey data released Oct. 20 by The Metro Denver Homeless Initiative. Veterans have historically been overrepresented in homelessness in metro Denver, Colorado, and across the country. However, federal and local governments have been working together to increase housing resources specifically for the population. “The government has stepped up their investment in resolving veteran homelessness. We’ve been seeing steady declines as those investments have kicked up,” said Cathy Alderman, chief communications and public policy officer for the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless. The Obama administration made it a top priority to dramatically increase awareness about veterans’ high risk of becoming homeless, and in 2013, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Veterans Affairs announced almost $70 million in grants to assist in addressing the issue across the country through rental assistance, case management and clinical services provided by the VA. In mid-September, the VA announced it had awarded another
SEE HOTEL, P2
SEE VETERAN, P5
Check out
School of Choice In this week’s paper!