National Park After Dark - A Daughter of Adventure: Molly Brown House National Historic Building

Episode Date: December 18, 2023

It’s here, it’s happening - Danielle finally gets to talk about the Titanic .. kind of. Today’s episode will introduce you to the real woman behind The Unsinkable Molly Brown, a self proclaimed “daughter of adventure”. For this episode Danielle visited the Molly Brown house in Denver’s Capitol Hill for guided tours (three times in one week) to get you the full scoop on her extraordinary life and the ghostly happenings in her home following her death.For the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Reel: Use our link and code NPAD to sign up for a subscription to automatically get 30% off of your first order and free shipping.Microdose Gummies: Use code NPAD to get free shipping and 30% off your first order.Prose: Use our link for a free in-depth hair consultation and 50% off your first subscription. Plus 15% off and free shipping on all future subscription orders.Lume Deodorant: Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with @lumedeodorant and get $5 off off your Starter Pack (that’s over 40% off) with promo code [NPAD] at LumeDeodorant.com! #lumepodFor a full list of our sources, visit http://npadpodcast.com/episodes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Monday AI agents took over my work. And I absolutely love it. Chasing deadlines, writing status reports, updating stakeholders. Agents handle the daily grind now. They live inside Monday.com. So they see the full picture, my work, my team, the whole company. And I don't have to worry about the data. It's safe, which means I'm free to focus on the big stuff,

knowing everything runs smoothly in the background. It's completely shifted the way we work. Create your own AI agent in minutes on Monday.com. Girl, winter is so last season. And now spring's got you looking at pictures of tank tops with hungry eyes. Your algorithm is feeding you cutoffs. You're thirsty for the sun on your shoulders. That perfect hang on the patio sundress.

Those sandals you can wear all day and all night. And you've had enough of shopping from your couch. Done hoping it looks anything like the picture when you tear up on that envelope. It's time for a little in-person spring treat. It's time for a trip to Ross. Work your magic. If you were a child of the 80s or 90s, you likely hit that iconic, nostalgic early 2000 sweet spot during your tween or teenage years. It was the time of AOL Instant Messenger, going to Blockbuster to rent movies, hip-hugging low-rise jeans, wearing handkerchiefs for tops, and hanging out at the local bowling alley or YMCA for teen nights.

MTV was king, and the movie awards, TRL, and the real world were all must-watches. But there was another show that has kind of faded from many MTV minds, Diary. The American Documentary Television Series premiered in February of 2000 and ran for eight seasons. The show followed the biggest celebrities of the time, from Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Jack Black, to Enrique Anglesias, and more. It gave public figures a behind-the-scenes, unrestricted invitation into their lives. In an age far before social media, where superstars can instantly upload content to showcase their personality, what they've been up to, and to dispel any rumors, Diary gave stars an opportunity to narrate their own stories, to show the world who they really were behind the photos and embellished and fabricated tabloid articles in Tiger Beat or J-14. When it comes to history, we typically remember notorious historical figures based off of one of their big moments or decisions.

Some sort of memorable event they were involved in, maybe a grand speech they gave, a song they wrote, a silent act of protest, or maybe even just a single photograph. Sometimes, though, details get lost in translation, and the accuracy of events gets lost in the sauce, leading to an inaccurate or incomplete account of who that person really was, a portrayal that. that somehow cements itself into the history books, misleading us into believing we know it all. But just like Diary's opening slogan, you think you know, but you have no idea. Welcome to National Park After Dark. I know it's not, but this feels like a Britney Spears episode. I really wish it was a Britney Spears. And our special guest today is Britney Spears.

It's so funny that you say that because when I was thinking of that intro, the one diary, episode that I really, really remember was Britney Spears' and I looked it up on YouTube when I watched the first like 15 minutes of it. I don't think I ever saw this show. Are you kidding me? It's like you think you know, but you have no idea. And then they'll start it. And it's literally just, it's like behind the scenes footage of a celebrity and like on the road or like their personal lives or just like behind. And Britney has like just like she's dating Justin at the time.

So like, what a throwback. I know. And we all know how we both read her book when we were in Madagascar. Yeah. Danielle and I took turns reading Brittany Spears' memoir while we were abroad in Madagascar. I ordered it on my Kindle for the day it released and we both read it. Yeah. I read it on the flight home and she read it like during some bus rides.

Yeah. So anyway, it's not a Britney Spears episode, even though that would be pretty cool. that would be pretty cool. National park related, I don't know, but iconic, yes. Correct. And so funny you say that. So originally, like up until 20 minutes ago, I was like, this isn't off the trails. This is my first off the trails episode. But it's not because the house that I'm focusing on has a national park service plaque on it. Everything is part of the National Park Service in some capacity. Every story, no matter what it is, even if we try to go off the rails, it's like, you. Hold on. The National Park has dipped their toes in this story as well. Should we be concerned?

Like, it's actually kind of freaky. Like, is this a, is the National Park Service taking over the world? It appears that way because I... They should. They should, honestly. Okay. Well, I'm here for it. Do you want to know, like, what I'm actually talking about? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, anyway. It's not Britney Spears. We're just narrowing it down. It's a national park and it's not Britney Spears. What could it be? So it's not. It's a National Park Service Managed Building, and it's in Denver. And I have been waiting, waiting to do this episode because I originally wrote this story for of all things, our live show at the Stanley.

So months ago, I've had this prepared for months. And our original idea was Cassie was going to present the Stanley, do a little bit of history about the Stanley. And then I was going to take over and tell the story of one of its, one of its most, most famous guests, like one of the most famous people who have ever stated the Stanley. And that's how I was going to present this. But I switched up my thing. I obviously went a different direction.

But I've always wanted to share this story ever since. So now's the time. So who are we talking about? So we are going to be talking about Margaret Tobin, aka the unsinkable Molly Brown. Oh. Finally, a Titanic reference. Oh, yeah. I get to talk about the Titanic freely, openly, and without.

worry for shaming. Someone whose favorite movie is the Titanic, you have held out for a very long time from introducing the Titanic to this podcast. I knew I was going to be able to tie it in somehow. I just needed to know when. And honestly, it's a very small part of our story because like I kind of alluded to in the intro, a lot of people sometimes, especially in history, are remembered for just like blips in their lives.

And they're like, but I did so much more than that. And that's kind of the theme with Margaret Brown. She's remembered as the unsinkable Molly Brown. If you're a Titanic fan, you can picture her right now. She's iconic for that. And we'll get into all of the ways that people remembered her that weren't entirely accurate. So I wanted to share the true story behind Margaret Brown because it is worth sharing because she was an amazing person.

Cool. Molly was born Margaret Tobin in 1867 in the state of Missouri. She actually never went by Molly in life, rather by Maggie. If anybody gave her nickname, she went by Maggie by her close friends. So I'm actually not going to refer to her as Molly for this entire episode. Because she never was called that. Her name is Margaret. Wait, why was she called Molly then?

We'll get into that later. Okay. There's a reason, but yeah, she had never been called. called that in life, so I'm not going to do that. This episode is brought to you by Prime. Obsession is in session. And this summer, Prime Originals have everything you want. Steamy romances, irresistible love stories, and the book to screen favorites you've already

read twice. Off campus, L, every year after, the love hypothesis, Sterling Point, and more. Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Her parents were immigrants from Ireland, and she and her five siblings grew up without much money. While they weren't exactly living in extreme poverty, life wasn't super easy financially. Back then, families had to pay tuition to send their children to school, but despite tight funds,

Margaret's parents who were involved in the Underground Railroad and the Irish Resistance insisted that she received an above-average education. And at that point, the eighth grade level was like kind of. of their bar. They're like, okay, she needs to at least get to an eighth grade level because that was normal back then. Okay. Margaret quit school at the age of 13 in order to work full time at a tobacco company to help her family with finances. And as she was working, two of her siblings had moved to Leadville, Colorado, and we're like, wow, this is amazing. They have this really cool Colorado store and it's called Melanzama and you're like really up to come. Melanzana. Yeah. Melanzana is.

Colorado. I actually do really love Melonsana, but. I know. That's why I put that in there. I was like Cassie would love this. And I know a lot of people think of Leadville that way. But back in the time, back in the day, it was a booming silver mining town. And they really wanted her to come. And back in 1886, Colorado wasn't even a state yet. So I should say that. It's just present day Leadville, Colorado that we're talking about. So even though they didn't have, you know, your favorite store. It was still cool. It was still cool.

It was still just as pretty. And they had a lot of prosperous silver mines. And her brother had written to Margaret telling her that she should come specifically to find a husband and sent her some money to help get her there. And she agreed by the time she was 18, she had moved away from Missouri to work at a department store in Leadville. And a couple months later at a church picnic, she met James Joseph, who went by JJ Brown. And he was 12 years her senior.

He also had Irish immigrant parents and he had made his way up from Pennsylvania to Leadville, working along the way, working up the ranks, eventually becoming a mining engineer. So he had a very similar story as far as, like, not starting out with much, but really working his way to a position where he was comfortable. The two fell in love and after three months of dating and at the age of 19, she got married to him. And the idea was to move to a mining town to find a rich man in order for her to become set up financially so that her family could be taking care of. That was the original plan and what her brother really wanted from her.

Smart. And later on, when Margaret was interviewed about her life, she said, quote, I wanted a rich man, but I loved Jim Brown. I thought about how I wanted comfort for my father and how I had determined to stay single until a man presented himself who could give to the tired old man the things I longed for him. Jim was as poor as we were and had no better chance in life. I struggled hard with myself in those days. I loved Jim, but he was poor. Finally, I decided that I'd be better off with a poor man whom I loved than with a wealthy one whose money had attracted me. So I married Jim Brown. So when they first met,

he wasn't in poverty and neither was she, but they both didn't have much. And even though the original plan was to set her and her family up financially, she really struggled with the decision to marry for money or love, and she went with love. Stupid, but okay. Continue. I'm just kidding. The two went on to have two children, Lawrence and Catherine, Ellen, who went by Helen. And they, along with members of their family, lived in a home in Leadville. In 1893, Leadville experienced a huge downturn economically following the silver market crash after, the government decided to switch the U.S. backing of money from silver to gold,

and unemployment rose to around 90% in Leadville. It was a really, really difficult time. The situation was dire. People were losing their homes, their entire life savings, and were literally starving. The Browns were pretty unaffected and doing pretty well, thanks to JJ's high position. They were considered middle class at the time, which even allowed them to hire domestic help and tutors for their children. But wanting to help her community, Margaret joined the Colorado chapter of the National American Women's Suffrage Association and worked in local soup kitchens to assist families in Leadville, specifically those of miners who were really affected by the market crash. Around this time, JJ, who was at the time a superintendent of one of the

big mining operations out there, he had an idea. He believed that there was a local mine called the little Johnny mine that was capable of producing not just silver, which for a really long time, that's what they were doing because the U.S. backed their money was silver. But now that gold was the hot commodity, he believed that this specific mine could produce gold as well. And through some complicated mining engineering inventions, moves and decisions, thanks to him, the mine discovered the largest vein of gold in North America and was soon producing more than 135 tons of ore every single day. Wow.

This discovery, along with smart financial investment decisions made by the Brown family, made them multi-millionaires essentially overnight. They are now considered new money, and this bought them a new luxury home on Pennsylvania Street in Denver, which is now known as the Molly Brown House. They also used their money to buy a summer home, which is actually a mansion called the Avoca Lodge, and that is in southwest Denver near Bear Creek. They used it to host high society parties, the 400 acre property to house thoroughbreds, and to use as fruit orchards. So they had their like little, I say little, but their house in Denver and then they have their quote unquote summer house.

But in reality, they're only like a 20 minute drive away from each other now. But back then it was harder to get to. Right. It was like maybe a two, two and a half hour carriage ride. And obviously it wasn't as built up. So you're going from the city of Denver out to like the countryside, which obviously is no longer a countryside at all. But they had two homes so they could host events and parties. And the one that's down by Bear Creek, the Avoca Lodge, it's the historic pictures of it is beautiful. I mean, there's 400 acres of property.

It's amazing. And now it's so sad it's just the house because everything has been built up around it. Oh, really? Yeah. It's cool. The house is still there. It is really cool. So that house, along with the Capitol Hill home, which is the Molly Brown House, are both listed on the National Register of Historic Places. And I don't want to like triangulate myself, but I live less than 20 minutes away from both of these houses. So I am just living large because I've gone to the Molly Brown house. I actually went when I was researching this, I went three times in one week to take different types of toys. that they offer there just to get like as much. Do they recognize you eventually? They're like, oh, hey.

It's like, why did you keep coming here? Like, weren't you here yesterday and the day before? I just really love the moment. Yeah. I don't think anyone recognize me, thank youfully. Like, I was very careful to act inconspicuous. But, yeah, they offer a bunch of different types of tours, not just about Molly Brown, but the work she did.

And then they have a specific women's suffrage tour and a specific Titanic tour. And it's just so cool there. Highly recommend if anyone is in the area. It's a cool. You can do self-guided ones too. So you can just like wander around the house. And it's just amazing. Anyways, okay, back to her actual story.

And then I was like, okay, so it's listed on the National Register of Historic Places, but does that really count as a national park like story, you know, for our sake? And then I read the plaque. that's outside. And it says the Molly Brown House has been dedicated a registered registered National Historic Building under the provisions of the Historic Site Act of 1935. This site possesses exceptional value in commemorating or illustrating the history of the state of Colorado, United States Department of the Interior National Park Service 1972. So there it is. They counts. There's the tie. That counts for sure. There is a National Park Service plaque on a

mountain near me. That is not managed by the National Park Service, but it was designated as a, what is it, a natural landmark by the National Park Service and there's a big plaque on top of the mountain. So is it, I'm confused. So is it not? It's not part of the National Park Service at all, but at some point, the National Park Service deemed it like important, but it was blessed. It was blessed by the Park Service. Yeah, it was blessed by the Park Service. But as far as I'm a aware that there's no other, there's nothing else that they have to do with it. I just imagine the park service like nighting it. Like I hereby. I dubbed the important. And I think that's maybe what's going on with this. But whatever, we'll run with it. Okay. So when Margaret and her family

made the move to Denver to an area known at the time as Society Hill, which is now known as the Cap Hill or Capitol Hill neighborhood, that move catapulted Margaret into a a new social scene and gave her the opportunity to really sink into what she felt was important in life. And that was mainly philanthropic work and women's rights advocacy. She had very little interest in upholding the societal norms of a typical wealthy woman in high society of the time, which consisted largely of meeting up for tea and having gossip sessions and, you know, just a lot of the stereotypical things that we think of when you think of high society. Victorian ladies. Yes. Even though she had friends in that circle, this was now her social

bracket and her family were friends with a lot of these people. She wanted to do something. Like she couldn't just sit around and talk. She needed to do things. And so what she did, very smart, is she started to use these parties. People were already gathering in the first place. So she started using these parties as ways to raise money for causes that she felt were really important. Smart. She became a founding member of the Denver women. men's club, which focused on women's suffrage, human rights, and advocacy work across the United States. She raised money for impoverished children across the city of Denver and helped fund the construction of hospitals all while raising her own two children, along with the children

of her brother once her sister-in-law passed away. Oh yeah, and then she also ran for Senate, one of the first women to ever do so, eight years prior to women even gaining the right to vote. Wow, that's really cool. What a badass. And she only gets cooler. In between all of that, she traveled back and forth to New York, where she went on to attend the Carnegie Institute, where she studied literature, language, and drama. She worked with tutors for three hours a day on various other areas of interest. Another admirable thing, everyone in her home would benefit from these interests she had

when tutors or instructors would come to give her lessons, whether it be for language writing, astrology, music, whatever it was, she would insist that anyone in her home from the servants they had, maids, cooks, housekeepers, they would be free and open to join her if they were interested. So they benefited from getting a high education if they would like.

And while we look at this as admirable at the time, many of her peers and people in her social circle began gossiping about how she was a nice enough woman, but she was a little too close to the help. And they started gossiping about her in that way. But it wasn't just her who was really kind. JJ was also extremely charitable and compassionate to others. At one point in time, the Browns were financially supporting 25 less fortunate families financially,

and they always bought holiday gifts and donated their time and money to others in need. But girls got to take a break. So Molly traveled as well, always learning along the way. She hired a master yodler when she was in Switzerland to teach her how to yodel. That's cool. While in Spain, she learned how to play classic guitar. In 1902, on a world tour with JJ, they hopped country to country, including places like France, Japan, Ireland, Russia, and India.

After their world tour, Molly returned to many places on her own, eventually traveling to every continent except Australia and Antarctica. JJ eventually tapped out. He was getting fatigued of all their travel. sounds familiar. I was like, you're like, I got to take a break. This is fun, but I got to take a break. But she was really interested in exploring the world. So she pushed forward. And she, the whole time, while learning and exploring and immersing herself in different cultures of the world, she was writing travel articles as she went. And they would then be published in the Denver Post. So it was just like,

what a woman, you know, of the time especially. She wears a lot of hats. And she's doing a lot of lot of things simultaneously with other activities. She's always busy. In interviews, she was eager to share what she learned about other cultures and different places. When interviewed during one of her runs for Senate, one of her runs for Senate, because she ran multiple times, in an article that wound up being titled, which is, I just think it's interesting.

It's called, Possible Woman Senator Can Box, Swim, Row, Play Polo, and Eat with Chopsticks. It's like, look at her. Look at this woman. With her girl brain? I know. She can eat with chopsticks and she has a girl brain. Oh, my God. She said in that article, she was quoted in that article saying,

I have really forgotten how many times I've crossed when she's speaking of the ocean, like going back and forth across the ocean. Oh, okay. But for years, I've spent six months in Colorado and six months on the other side of the world. I've been through Europe many times, of course, and in China, India and Africa. everywhere I tried to study the life of the people and to become familiar with their customs. So she's getting around. She's like an amazing person.

Yeah, she's really cool. In 1909, her and JJ legally separated. The agreement awarded Molly the house on Pennsylvania Street along with their summer home near Bear Creek. The separation settlement also gave her a salary, which was about $700 a month, which is roughly $23,000 today. And she was given this so she could continue. her philanthropic work and her travels. And although they never formally divorced, they didn't get

back together either. But they remained close and cared for each other for the rest of their lives. Molly later wrote, let me say here that I've been all over the world. I have known more or less intimately the greatest people in the world from kings down or up as one cares to view them. I've never met or expect to meet a finer, bigger, more worthwhile man than J.J. Brown. They don't make them like him anymore. So they still had love for each other even after. It just didn't work out. It just didn't work out.

In 1912, Margaret and her daughter were, guess what, traveling, around various countries in Europe and in North Africa. And they were actually in Egypt. And I have a picture of them on camels in front of the sphinx and the pyramids. That's so cool. It's so cool. I'll post it. But obviously you can Google it too.

It's just so funny because it's like, hey, we did that. We did that. Are we as cool as Molly Brown? I don't know. Not yet. We have time. We have time. Yeah, not yet.

So they were in Egypt with John Jacob Astor's party, one of the richest men in the entire world, who, spoiler alert, died on the Titanic, when she received a telegram that her grandson was really sick. She wanted to get back to him immediately, so she booked a ticket on the first ship heading to New York, the most extravagant. ship of its time, which is, of course, the Titanic. Her daughter actually decided to stay back in London at the very last minute, leaving the Aster's and Margaret to board the Titanic in France on April 10th. Four days later, Margaret was reading in her room aboard the ship when it struck an iceberg.

If you've seen the movie, many first-class passengers were ignorant of the impending danger and thought that the warnings of the crew members were a complete overreaction. And that is true. Also, that's not just a fabrication of the movie. Margaret was different, though, because she immediately was like, shit is going down and I'm getting out of here. So while all the other passengers in first class were hesitant, they wanted to go back to their rooms,

they weren't really sure if they should wear a life jacket, Margaret immediately put on six layers of her undergarments and socks. All of her warmest clothing that she brought, including her fur jackets. She slipped $400 in her pocket as well as one other item. When she was in Cairo, prior to receiving news of her grandson or knowing that she would ever be aboard the ship, she met with a fortune teller. And this fortune tell her that she would live a long life, but she would fare best to avoid any type of water. She then received a small talisman for good luck.

It was a three-inch-long turquoise-painted funerary figurine called Ushapti, which the ancient Egyptians would place in tombs to accompany the dead into the afterlife. So she put $400 bucks in her pocket and that. As the ship was sinking, Margaret sprang into action. As mass chaos was starting to unfold, Margaret stayed put on board, guiding passengers and helping them onto the lifeboats. According to her and other witnesses who survived, she had to actually be physically grabbed and placed into lifeboat six as it was being lowered. They're like, okay, enough.

Like, stop helping others, you need to get on the boat. Once on the lifeboat, she begged Robert Hitchens, the crew, member that was in charge to turn back to help more people. In all, when the lifeboat was lowered away, the lifeboat that was designed to hold 65 people held less than 24. And this pissed off Margaret. As the lifeboat rode away from the scene of the sinking ship and hundreds of people were either already deceased, alive and actively dying, floating in the 28-degree Fahrenheit waters, Margaret did her best to rally the other members on her boat to turn their lifeboat back around. She was immediately shot down by Hitchens, who started going off about how they were all doomed anyway.

It didn't matter. They were all going to die. But she bit back, threatening to throw him off the lifeboat if he continued scaring everybody. She went on to encourage the women to help row to keep warm and tried her best to keep morale up until aid arrived. She started peeling off her layers of clothing to give to women who were in the boat in only their nightdowns. and she started giving layers of socks to those who had gotten onto the boat barefoot. She helped wrap and care for a child on the boat who had a broken arm. And on her lifeboat, fun fact, one of the women brought her dog, who was a little Pomeranian,

and she had tucked it into her coat and brought it onto the lifeboat. And that dog was one of three dogs that survived the sinking of the Titanic. Over 1,500 people lost their lives that night. And while she never could convince the men to return back for any survivors, she did what she could aboard the Carpathia, which is the ship that came to the Titanic's aid. At a time where everyone is in shock, mere hours after likely the most traumatic event of their whole lives, disoriented and grieving the loss of family and friends,

Molly stepped up once again. She assisted hundreds of survivors by rifling through the ship for support. handing out food, water, and blankets. She was fluent in Russian, German, French, and English, so this gave her the ability to connect and communicate with and translate for people who may have otherwise been even more lost and confused. She compiled a list of survivors and arranged for information to be radioed to their families at her own expense. Margaret was the very last survivor to disembark the Carpathia. She stayed to make sure that every single survivor regardless of their class, wealth, ethnicity, or gender, had met with their family and friends

or received the proper emergency assistance that they needed before she herself left to rejoin her own family. Wow, that's incredible. Yeah. And she has such a small, I mean, obviously, the Titanic was based off of a totally different story. A fake story, yeah. A fictional story. And they do kind of like give glimmers of like her real personality and like, you know, the way she She kind of looked and dressed and things like that. But her story is just amazing. Like that is, especially for someone who was in first class to do that. When like first class people were like, first to get off.

They're like, get me out of here. You know? And she was like, okay, but there are people here that just went through what all of us experience. And they have no idea what's going on because they don't speak our language. They don't speak English. Yeah. And they just lost their entire families.

And a lot of people were on the Titanic coming to a new. you know, like coming to a different country, leaving their old lives behind everything that they had. All their earthly possessions were on a ship that just sank. And now they have absolutely no one or nothing. And she's actually taking the time to, I mean, she feels almost like a first responder here. And that's not even her job. She was just a passenger. And she's making sure people are okay, writing lists. And those are jobs that are usually that we know today are designated to someone as a first responder or as aide and she's just wearing all the hats and jumping into action because she has the ability to do so, which a lot of people do and did,

but she particularly noticed that and was like, I can't step by and do nothing. And she did something else regarding the Titanic. So during the voyage on the Carpathia to get back to New York, she worked to convince wealthy first class survivors to donate to the last less fortunate by brilliant. She, so instead of just going up and being like, hey, you're wealthy, these people are not, can you give some money to help this fund? She publicly posted donor names and dollar amounts on the ship.

So people could be like, oh shit, well, they donated a thousand dollars. And it was a competition. Yeah, like, oh, we didn't donate anything. And now everyone can see that. Like, so she, like, mind fucks, like, all these people. into donating because otherwise if no one, they're like, no, I'm not going to do that. So due to her efforts, over $10,000, which is about $300,000 in today's money to help aid survivors was pledged before they reached the shores of New York.

So even before the ship docked in New York, she raised $300,000. That's incredible. She founded and was elected head of the Titanic Survivors Committee, a role in which she stayed in until her death. And after hearing word that her grandson was okay, which was the whole reason she was on the Titanic to begin with, she stayed in New York and along with several other women, directed foreign survivors to emergency personnel, helped get them in touch with any friends or family that they had aboard, and sent telegrams on their behalf. As news spread about her selfless efforts, both during and in the aftermath of the sinking,

paper started dubbing her the heroine of the Titanic. In response, she said, quote, as I went on to the deck when the boats were being lowered, I found many opportunities to be useful and I was glad to be. The less you think of yourself at such times, the better off you are. I simply did my duty as I saw it. I knew that I was healthy and strong and was able to nurse the suffering. I am sure that there was nothing I did throughout the whole affair that anyone else wouldn't have done. That I did help some, I am thankful. And my only regret is that I could not have assisted more. She started shying away from all the praise and all the public headlines of her.

Instead, giving it out to who she believed was deserving, including handing out medals to the captain of and every single crew member aboard the Carpathia. And there's a picture of her giving like this big, it looks like, you know, in horse racing when they give like that big cup, like an award cup. Yeah. There's a picture of her giving that to the captain of the Carpathia. And then she handled out medals to every single crew member of that ship. And she also gave her little Egyptian talisman that she carried for good luck when the ship went down to the captain.

And now that is sitting at a Titanic Museum in Missouri. So that's where that's at. Oh, very cool. Following the sinking of the Titanic, there were multiple hearings and invest. launched into what caused the disaster and what happened during and following the sinking. But Margaret, as a woman, was not permitted to testify at the multiple U.S. Senate hearings regarding the sinking. Even though she did all of that, she was there.

She was there. She saved and helped hundreds of people. And because she's a woman, she can't speak about it. Yep. Officially, at the U.S. Senate, so what she did, she improvised, what she always did, she started to write about the events that she witnessed. And because of her notoriety, her account was published in newspapers and magazines around the world. So she's like, oh, it can't speak at your meeting. That's fine. Okay, I'll talk to the whole world. Yep.

And it's for her. It's also interesting. I didn't write this in here, but I just remembered, she also started advocating for, I'm pretty sure it's called equal rights of land and sea, because what she witnessed was, you know, you hear women and children first, you know, like during the sinking of a ship or an emergency, get the women and children first, which was happening on the Titanic. And she changed her mind about that when she saw the sinking because she saw entire families get ripped apart and like all the men die. And now these women who have no financial power, no power in any sort of.

of way. The man was like everything. Now he's gone and now she's worse off. And a lot of times they were resistant to leave their husband or their brother or their father. Because it's their family member and you're forgetting a whole group of people. Yeah. So she was really vocal about changing the way that that is handled in disasters. That's just a little aside. But she was like, that really changed her when she saw that. With her newfound fame, she used the spotlight to advocate on a global scale what she had already been doing kind of on a smaller scale or in the shadows for decades. This included laborers rights, minors' rights, education for children and women's rights. She ran for a second time for the U.S. Senate and asked why she kept running for office,

she said, quote, here I am, a woman who has traveled all over the world, who has eaten with chopsticks, sat tailor fashion, taught her son to dive and ride. I have even put on boxing gloves with him. And I suppose there are some persons who would like to see me sit down and devote the rest of my life to playing bridge. Times have changed. And there's no reason why I should, like my mother at 40, put on glasses and do little but read. Fair. Fair. Good for her. She's like, I'm more useful than anyone's giving me credit for her just because I'm a woman. So I'm going to do whatever I can and will. She never did earn a position in Senate, and she ended up abandoning her political run in 1914 for other causes, including pioneering a system of punishment and rehab for child offenders, which seems a little weird at face value. But at the time, they were throwing children into jail with adults that had committed really violent crimes.

There was no juvenile system at the time. It was like, if you are arrested or get into any sort of trouble, it doesn't matter. If you're eight or 55, doesn't matter what crime you were, if you stole a lollipop, or if you sexually assaulted someone, you're going into the same system. Yeah, that's not right. That was not right. So she started pioneering with some friends that she had in the court systems and the legal systems.

She started to pioneering this like basic blueprint for a different way of doing things. And that same blueprint, what she worked on, became what we now know as the U.S. juvenile court system that we have today. Wow. She donated one of her homes that was located in Newport, Rhode Island to the American Red Cross during World War I. And she traveled to France to work on a committee that worked to restore areas destroyed by combat during the war.

And she worked directly with wounded French and American soldiers on the front lines. Knowing that many soldiers would return without eyesight due to their injuries, she worked to translate the work of Mark Twain into braille, knowing a. fair amount of braille herself, because why not? Because she speaks all the other languages, too. Might as well know braille. And she helped teach soldiers the basics of reading braille. She stood in the picket lines following the Ludlow Massacre, which happened after the National

Guard was sent into a mining camp following an uprising against unfair working conditions. A slaughter ensued, hence the name Ludlow Massacre. Miners were killed and their families, including women and children. So it was a really big event. So instead of just throwing money at the cause, she physically stood next to minors and advocated for their rights following this incident. After traveling to the Chicago's World Fair,

she came back with inspiration. She noticed that African Americans and indigenous peoples were not allowed to run their own exhibit booths there. So when she came home, she organized a fundraiser at a local cathedral, and she put together what she called a carnival of nations in which people from different cultures and ethnicities were allowed to manage and run their own booths, which was revolutionary at the time. She's just like fighting for everyone.

It doesn't matter who you are. She's just like if she sees anyone being wronged, she just jumps in and tries to help in whatever way that she can. Isn't it? It's just like her story is so inspirational to me. And I know there are other people who have done equally as amazing things. But it's just like she does it all. Yeah, she does. And she does it based off of just like, hey, this isn't right. So let's not keep doing it. And I'm, if no one else is going to correct this, I will. You know, it's just like very matter of fact. And like, it's wrong to treat people like that. Or it's wrong to be extremely wealthy and not do anything useful with your money. To her, there was no other way. And I think that's really, really inspiring. Over the following decades, she continued her charitable.

work through the many avenues that I talked about already. She worked to erect the Mark Twain Memorial in her hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, because Mark Twain is also from there. That's why he's come up a couple times. That makes sense. As well as a Titanic Survivor's Memorial in Washington, D.C. Her interest in historic home preservation also saved the infamous Denver poet Eugene Fields home. She never failed to put others before herself, including animals.

She even founded and kept the lights on during the first few years for the Denver Dumb Friends League, which is one of the first humane societies in the entire United States. And I adopted Chaska from there in 2014. Oh, really? Yeah. Did you know this history before that or just learned it now and are like, wait a minute. I just learned it now. The one thing I do remember about that is I saw the name. And I was like, what the hell, dumb friends? And that's what they like referred to pets as back. Like a dumb friend was a pet, a name for a pet. And I was like, why have they not changed this name? I don't understand. Or why is this the name? And then I realized that it's a historic. It was like founded in 19, whatever, like early 1900. So I'm like, okay, so maybe it's a historic name. I don't know. And that was the only thought I gave to it. And now, yeah, it's all Margaret. In her 60s, Margaret was living at the,

the Barbizon Hotel in New York City. She had studied acting in Paris and even played in roles in France and the United States, and she was starting to return to that passion. And this hotel wasn't just any hotel. It's a cool hotel. Of course it is. And I could do a whole episode just on this hotel. It's amazing.

It was built in 1928. The hotel opened to women only, hoping to attract the artistically inclined, who all flocked to the area from across the country. country to break the shackles of societal norms and to transform themselves into women who focused on the arts. It had painting studios, soundproof rooms for music practice, and recital rooms for dancing. Grace Kelly, Sylvia Plath, Judy Garland, Rita Hayworth, Liza Minnelli, and Betsy Johnson are just a few of the recognizable names who spent time at this hotel. Very cool. It was nicknamed the hotel who set women free. And men weren't allowed even past the lobby

until the 1980s. I love that. When journaling about her life and reflecting on her years, Molly wrote, quote, I am a daughter of adventure, and she goes where she needs when she is needed. This means I never experience a dull moment and must be prepared for any eventuality.

I never know when I may go up in an airplane and come down with a crash, or go motoring and climb a pole, or go off for a walk in the twilight and return all must up in an ambulance. That is my arc, as the astrologers would say. It's a good one, too, for a person who had rather make a snap out of life than a fade out of life. Molly was living in the hotel, helping coach young actresses when she snapped out of life.

She passed away in her sleep on October 26, 1932, at the age of 65. Her autopsy revealed that she had a large tumor on her brain, and her official cause of death is listed as cerebral hemorrhage. After a simple funeral, she was buried along JJ in Holyrood Cemetery on Long Island, where they remain today. After her death, her legend was cemented into history following the publication of her biography, which was filled with truth along with some embellishments that aided to her mystique. This biography went on to serve as the basis for a famous Broadway musical, then later turned movie, titled The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

The musical opened in 1960 and ran for a movie. for 532 performances. And like I said, was later adapted into a movie. And that 1964 film starred Debbie Reynolds, which is for our generation, the grandmother in Halloween town. Oh, okay. Okay, there it is.

There it is. Now I know who she is. And she was the mother of Carrie Fisher. Okay, very cool. I didn't know that. I love Carrie Fisher. This is where Molly comes into play now, because Molly was easier to sing in the musical than Margaret or Maggie.

Oh. There it is. So they just changed it to Molly. Mm-hmm. Interesting. Now onto the house, the Molly Brown House, which it is now known as, is often listed amongst the top most haunted of Colorado and is considered a must-see for anyone visiting the Mile High City. The Browns moved into the house in 1894, five years after it was originally built. The house was initially built for a couple named Mr. and Mrs. Lard, a couple who also built their wealth on silver.

Due to their extreme wealth, they were able to build the house with all of the finest modern conveniences, and this included an indoor bathroom, plumbing with hot and cold water, electricity, and central heating. This means that the four fireplaces in the home were just purely for show. Like, they didn't really need them for heat. They're just grand fireplaces. They are. And when the original owners lost most of their fortune during the silver crash, JJ and Margaret bought the home for $30,000, which in today's money is about a million dollars.

Margaret furnished the home with luxurious items, including a full polar bear rug, the finest, most intricately carved furniture and statues, memorabilia, and artwork that she collected from around the world during all of her traveling. When the Browns moved in, it became known as the House of Lion, due to the multiple statues of lions that are placed outside of the home, which can still be seen today, just walking down the street, along with several Sphinx statues that she had sent from Egypt.

So it's either called the Molly Brown House or the House of Lion, depending on who's talking about it. Because she traveled so extensively and had multiple other homes, Margaret didn't spend all her time inside of this house, but she did host a lot of parties and entertained a lot of of people here. She also raised her children in this house and her parents both lived and died there. When their family traveled, the house was rented out, including to the governor of Colorado. Because remember, she was like, I like to spend six months in Colorado and six months around the world. So they, it wasn't, it didn't sit, sit empty for half the year. A nice schedule.

When JJ passed away in 1922, he did not have a will. And this complicated things. And of course, caused a brief rift between Margaret and her children as they debated what to do with the house. It eventually was leased out to several families. Then during the Great Depression, the home was converted into a boarding house under the supervision of her housekeeper. Following Margaret's death, the house and everything in it was sold in an estate sale, and the home passed through several different private owners. By 1952, it was under the ownership of Art Lessing Ring, an antique dealer who ran it as a men's boarding house. In 1960, he leased the house out to the city of Denver for use and a new project by the Denver Juvenile Justice System, and it opened as one of the two

new halfway houses for wayward teenagers who were crowding the Denver prison system. It served under the name Jane Adams Halfway House, and it provided residential rehabilitation in a community setting rather than a strict form of punishment. Of course, dozens of teenage criminals living in a single house led to some trouble, including girls climbing onto the roof late at night, painting the lion statues, running away, and more. Oops. Oops. And it's cool because there are a couple pictures of it. Obviously, there's pictures of it from when it was first built, and it's wild to see because, so I don't know if I've said this before. I know we've talked about it before, but so the Molly Brown house is like, I want to say two, one or two blocks away from Ian's old apartment. So we would walk by

the house all the time because he lived in the Cap Hill area. Well, I knew. I knew. I was like, because I've always been a Margaret Brown fan. Like I'm a Titanic junkie, you know, I know. Of course. And we would walk by and he would always be like, you know, some days, we'll go in someday, we'll take the tour, like da-da-da. And we just never did, you know. Yeah. He was a trooper for a lot of things, but I think like doing a historic tour of a woman's suffragist rights advocate was like not on his to-do list. He's like, we'll get there. We'll do it at some point. So when I went for research for this, like it sounds really weird, but it was like very emotional, kind of because it brought back a lot of memories.

And it was just kind of like we always, I say we. I always wanted to do this with him. And obviously, like, it's our old stomping grounds. And I mean, I walked by his apartment, looked at his old window. Like, it was a lot. Yeah. But I love the house so much. And obviously, I love the history associated with it.

And it's a museum. Obviously, it's a house-turned museum. And there's pictures of it, obviously, throughout time. starting when it's just the house with a horse-tron carriage in front and there's nothing around it. And now it's like a huge city, you know, just built up around it. I mean, you're saying his apartment was a couple blocks away. Yeah, true. It's not the big open area anymore.

True. And then through time, you know, there's like girls from the 50s like hanging on the roof and then, you know, just like how it's transformed over time. By the late 1960s, Denver was in the middle of a urban renewal effort, in which hundreds of historic properties were getting demolished. In 1970, the house was slated for demolition as part of this bigger effort, but a group of 18 concerned Denver citizens stepped up for the house and through a grassroots fundraising effort raised $80,000 to purchase and save the home from the wrecking ball. Over the next 10 years, the group raised an additional $180,000 to restore the house to its former glory and to date have invested over a million dollars in that effort. And what they did was ingenious. Through the years and the many different people who owned the house and the many things that it served as, it clearly changed. You know, it was a boarding house and then it was a halfway house and this and that. It's not this luxurious Victorian-style house anymore.

The exterior did not change, but the interior was changed significantly. And remember, none of her things were left in there because of the estate sale. Everything was sold off. So what historic Denver did was so cool. So in 1910, Margaret had a really small, quaint, you know, 800-person garden party at her house, just like a typical gathering. And for this, she hired a photographer to take pictures of every room of her house. before the guests arrived to commemorate her home. Like this was like a big showcasing of her house.

She was inviting all these people. So what historic Denver did is they found those original photographs and through extensive research and work and efforts either tracked down and purchased back those original items or found pieces that were from that exact time period, manufactured at that exact time and put them back in the house. So everything in the house as of right now, except the telephone, which is a modern day recreation of an old phone, either directly belonged

to Margaret or belongs to the original time period that Margaret lived in the house. Wow, that's really cool. And a lot of effort to do that. A lot of work. To find everything she owned and bring it back or just find almost exact replicas of that. That must have been taken so much time. So much time. And especially when you walk in because it is a step. I mean, typical like early 1900s, late 1800s homes, you know it. They're not minimalist. They are, mm-mm. Things are fancy and there's a lot of it. Yeah. And I'll post one of the pictures that she originally took or that she hired the photographer to take and it's of the parlor, like the sitting room that has the big grand like polar bear rug.

And you look at that and you're like, there's so much stuff just in this one room. And it's a mansion. So it's like, it's mind-boggling that people were able to do that, but I'm so glad they did because it is like stepping back. You step from like a busy bustling, 2003 Denver Street to an 1895 home. It's just really, really cool. That is cool. And many of the stained glass windows and the intricate wallpaper is original as well. So it's really cool. The group that saved the Molly Brown House, which was placed on the National Historic Register in 1972, became one of the nation's

first nonprofit urban preservation organizations. Historic Denver Incorporated, originally formed to save the Molly Brownhouse. That was like their first project. But in the five decades since that, since they formed, they've saved hundreds of other historic properties throughout Denver, including historic parks, homes, theaters, schools, and more. So they got started there, but they kept going. And it's a really cool organization and the Molly Brownhouse. We missed it because we were in.

Africa, somewhere in Africa. But yeah, during Halloween. So during the Halloween time frame, they had, they have special events all of the time, but they were putting on this special Victorian theme, like how the Victorians celebrated Halloween. And then also death and dying rituals and morning rituals of the Victorian era. And they host it in the Molly Brown house. And I'm like, God, that sounds right up your alley. I know. I'm like, I know I'm in Africa. It's beautiful. It's amazing. But the Molly Brown house is, it's going down there. now. I really want to be there. It's like, and I'm so far away. I'm as far away as I could possibly be actually. And just to wrap this up, like I said, I originally made this for the Stanley Live show, which had a spookyish theme. So I wanted to end off on a paranormal note. Because like I mentioned, this house is always on top of the lists of the most haunted places in Denver, yada, yada. So I'm like, all right, what's it about? But interestingly, when I went to, so I did the three tours inside of the Molly Brown House, and then I did a fourth tour, which is a haunted walking tour of Cap Hill. So it went to

a lot of different, like, big locations in that neighborhood. Sure. And Molly Brown stop was like, I don't know, like three minutes. And there wasn't really like much to be said. And during the tours, they never mentioned anything, except in the gift shop, which is the old carriage house, which is right behind her house where they used to keep the horses and carriages. It's converted into a gift shop, which has a lot of really cool things as well. And there's like this tiny little section that says like, I saw the ghost cat Molly Brown house. I'm like, okay, so there's just a ghost cat here. Like what is happening? Did you find more? So through research, I found just a few things that I did bullet points because I can't verify them and they're not really that talked about, honestly.

So let's just list them off. Margaret and JJ have been seen roaming the rooms. Jay J.J. enjoyed cigars in life, and the scent of cigar smoke can still be detected in the attic and the basement. And this is interesting, as far as the locations where this is noted, is because Margaret never allowed him to smoke in the house and would always kick him outside to smoke. So it's thought that he used to try and sneak away to either the attic or the basement, especially in the cold Colorado winters, to puff on a pipe. And now people still catch a whiff of that. Margaret's mother passed away inside of the home, and some visitors have seen her standing by windows. Window blinds will go up and down on their own in Helen's room, which is Margaret's daughter.

Rocking chairs rock on their own, and faint notes of the piano have been heard floating throughout the house. The dining room will have items rearranged from time to time, and allegedly a woman wearing her Victorian best has been seen in that room sitting or standing near the time. table. There is an account of Margaret's mother herself actually seeing an apparition of a former female servant in the servant's staircase. So this is back in the early 1900s. She said that she saw an apparition. Oh, okay. And finally, the most popular spirit in the home is the ghost cat. We all love a ghost cat. Well, Margaret never owned a cat in the house. And no one exactly knows where this cat comes from. But like I just went through, this house served as a lot of different things. A lot of different people lived there throughout the years after Margaret did. So who really knows?

It couldn't be anybody's cat. So no one really knows exactly where it comes from. But many people through the years have seen this ghost cat wandering through the second floor. And they'll hear it purring or faint meows. That's a kind of ghost I could handle for sure. Yeah. That's my kind of haunting. Yeah. Like I can have a little cat like rub against my leg. That's cool. Margaret shied away from the spotlight and made herself scarce during many of the biggest charitable moments of her life. In a time where people made sure everyone knew about what they did and how much money they gave, Margaret almost did the opposite. There are no photos of her on the front lines of Ludlow, working to create the juvenile court system on the Carpathia or driving ambulances in France. She wanted to make sure what she was doing had the focus, not her.

her doing the thing. In the end, Margaret lived her life on her own terms. And although she certainly was able to accomplish so much due to the fact that she had access to wealth, I think that she stayed true to the word she wrote herself. Money can't make a man or a woman. It isn't who you are, nor what you have, but who you are that counts. And that is the story of Margaret, Tobin Brown, and her amazing life. Well, I'm feeling a combination of inspired and also like a piece of shit. I'm like, wow, there's so much more that I should be doing right now. And maybe that's the inspired part.

But wow, she's amazing. She's done so much. And I didn't know her story at all. I had heard of her before, of course, because of the Titanic and you mentioning her. But the amount that she's done within her life is really cool. And it is really inspiring. And it makes you kind of want to look around to be like, okay, what should I be focusing on right now? And I actually have, I went a little wild in the gift shop, obviously.

What'd you get? Okay, so I got a candle. It's a Titanic candle. It has nothing to do with the Titanic, obviously. It just has like an old picture of the Titanic on it. And it smells really good. Okay. And then I got a book called The Titanic Cat.

And it's the true story about a cat on the Titanic or something like that. Oh. Or that has to do the Titanic. Is that the cat that hunts the Molly Brownhouse? No. It's an entirely different story. And it's a true story, but the book is like a children's book. I got it under the guys that I would give it to one of my nephews, but I have it still.

But you're like, I actually want to read this. I actually want this. So I got that. And then there's a lot of stuff obviously to do with the Titanic and Margaret Brown there, but a lot of it has to do with other notable women in history. So there's a lot of different books and things that have to do with, like, her interests as a whole. And the thing I was going to say is I got this little keychain. I have it in my purse.

And it's an outline of her, I mean, like her big Victorian hat and her dress. And it's an outline. And it says, what would Margaret Brown do? I love that. carried around. You carried around with you. Yeah. It's a little reminder, you know, what would Mark Rohn do? It's like, what would she do in this situation? Like, because she would sure do something. She would. And that's my story. Thanks for listening. And I hope you guys feel strongly about learning about her story because I know so many of us just like, I can picture

her right, Kathy Bates right now playing her. And just in the movie, they did, you know how they're like, oh, she, they look down in her because she's new money. And, Yeah, I remember that. Like she's a part of the group, they kind of like shun her a little bit. She's kind of like on the outskirts. But she's really nice to Jack, who doesn't have a lot of money. So she was never really shunned. Like obviously she was a part of that circle and whatever.

But like I said, like there would be gossip like, oh, she's a little too close to the help. Like what's she doing hanging out with the help when we're. Right. We have the money. We're separate kind of thing. Yeah. And then in the lifeboat scene, she does say something, like, we should go back. Like, what are we doing?

She's like, come on, ladies. Like, those are our men dying out there. Like, let's turn back. And then the captain, he was like, you better shut that hole in your face. That's what he says to her in the movie. I do remember that. Yeah. And then she kind of like coweres down.

But in actuality, she did what she could. And then when she couldn't get them to turn back, she gave what she had. And then her story just kind of stops there. as far as the movie goes. So it's cool to learn more about her efforts on the Carpathia and then onwards. So anyways, that's that on that. Cool. Well, thank you for sharing.

I know you've been dying to get the Titanic on here. So it's cool to learn Margaret's story. And of course, the Titanic a little bit in there too. And it's my birthday month. So that's why I decided to do it. It's your birthday month. You can talk about whatever you want this month. That's right.

All right. Well, we will see you guys next time. In the meantime, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye. Bye. Thank you so much for joining us again this week. If you have a trail tale or story suggestion, send us an email at Stories at NPAD Podcast.com.

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