by You’ve perhaps heard of “the unsinkable Molly Brown” and known she was a survivor of the Titanic sinking, but there’s a lot more to her than that. It’s all covered in the Molly Brown House Museum in Denver, Colorado.
Margaret Brown (1867-1932) was called “Maggie” by her friends and family but never “Molly” in her lifetime (only after as her legend grew). She married Joseph (known as “J.J.”) in 1886 when he was but a poor mining laborer (she was also from a working-class family), but hard work and a little good luck turned him into a wealthy man just a few years later.
The home was built in 1889 for another family, but purchased by the Browns in 1894 for $30,000 (more than $1 million today). Interestingly, the title was transferred into Margaret’s name in 1898, and the family frequently rented the home out while traveling abroad. In 1902 it served as the Governor’s residence while the Governor’s Mansion was being remodeled. In 1926, Margaret turned the home into a boarding house under the supervision of her housekeeper.
Upon Margaret’s death in 1932, it became a rooming house for men, a Jane Addams Hull House settlement, and finally rooms and apartments for rent. By 1970 it was in a state of deterioration and scheduled for demolition. Fortunately a civic group was created to save the home, which, needless to say, it required extensive work to restore it to the early 1900s time frame. Most of the furniture on display is not original to the family, but simply “of the period.”
Margaret jumped in to her new life as a socialite headfirst, learning French, German, Italian, and Russian, joining social and charitable clubs, and becoming politically active (particularly in regards to women’s right to vote). J.J., however, was not so interested, and the couple began to drift apart. By 1909, after 23 years of marriage, they were ready to sign a formal separation agreement, in which she received $700 a month (about $24,000 today) – hot damn! They remained separated until J.J.’s death in 1922.
In 1912, Margaret was living it up in Paris when she received word that her grandchild was ill, so booked the first available passage home she could get – on the Titanic. When it sunk, she remained cool and collected, helping others to get on lifeboats and urging rescue ships to go back for more survivors. While on the rescue ship Carpathia, she organized a committee with other first-class survivors to look after the physical and emotional needs of the second- and third-class survivors. The many languages she had learned came in handy.
