Molly Brown House Museum

The Molly Brown House is Denver's most entertaining historic home, and the best hour you can spend in Capitol Hill. Built in 1889 in the Queen Anne style, the house was bought a few years later by James Joseph Brown and Margaret Tobin Brown, whose mining fortune came from the Leadville silver and gold country. Margaret is the reason people come: she survived the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, helped organize aid for fellow survivors aboard the rescue ship, and spent her life campaigning for women's suffrage, workers' rights, children's welfare and historic preservation. The nickname Molly came later, from the Broadway musical and film; in life she was Maggie, and the tours take real pleasure in separating the woman from the caricature. Guided tours run about forty-five minutes through rooms restored to their early-twentieth-century look, with original and period furnishings, family photographs and plenty of stories about Denver society, which never quite accepted the Browns. The museum is run by Historic Denver, the preservation group founded specifically to save this house from demolition in 1970, and the tour weaves that story in too. Self-guided visits are offered, but the guided tour is the one to book: the guides are excellent and the house reads far better with someone explaining it. Tickets often sell out, so reserve ahead. The house is open Wednesday through Sunday, with later hours on Thursdays, and the surrounding Capitol Hill streets are full of other grand mansions worth a stroll.

The Browns' story is a classic Colorado arc. J.J. Brown was a mining engineer who helped develop a major ore body at Leadville's Little Jonny mine, and the family moved to Denver as newly wealthy outsiders. Margaret threw herself into the city's civic life, studied languages and the arts, traveled widely and became an outspoken advocate for causes that were not fashionable among the Capitol Hill elite. She was returning from Europe on the Titanic when it sank; in Lifeboat 6 she pushed the crew to go back for survivors, and aboard the Carpathia she raised money for passengers who had lost everything. The tour does an especially good job of showing how her later activism, from labor rights after the Ludlow Massacre to running for office before women could vote nationally, has been flattened by her legend.

The house itself is a fine example of the stone mansions built during Denver's silver boom, and the restoration is detailed: wallpapers, light fixtures, the parlor's decorative finishes and a collection of objects tied to the family. Tours involve two or three flights of stairs and some standing, with stools available; touch tours, assisted listening devices and printed scripts are offered for visitors with disabilities, and an app provides audio and images for anyone who cannot manage the stairs. Book a guided tour time online, arrive a few minutes early, and allow time afterward to walk the neighborhood.

Capitol Hill is the right setting. A few blocks west, the Colorado State Capitol offers free tours and a famous step marked one mile above sea level, and the History Colorado Center is a short walk beyond it. Historic Denver also runs neighborhood walking tours that start from the house, a good add-on for history fans. The museum is particularly fun for older kids and teenagers who know the Titanic story, and for couples who enjoy house museums with real personality. It is a small site, so pair it with lunch in the neighborhood rather than making a special trip just for it.