High tea at the Brown Hotel

 Mindy and Jason treated us to high tea at the Brown Palace Hotel!  As we drove there, we happened to pass "Corona Presbyterian Church."  What a name to have these days!

Colorado State Capitol

This hotel opened in 1892.  No wood was used for the floors and walls, but from terra cotta, making it fire-proof.  Beginning with Theodore Roosevelt, every president but Coolidge, Obama and Trump has stayed here.

Room 321 is a huge tourist destination for Chinese visitors because the first president of China, Sun Yat-sen stayed here in 1912.  

There was a double murder at this hotel.  The Beatles have stayed here.  The Clintons held the G7 summit here in 1997.  Every major world leader and their staff was put up in this hotel.  

Dwight D. Eisenhower dubbed the Brown Palace "The Western White House."  There are suites named for Roosevelt, Eisenhower and Reagan in commemoration of their stays.

We were serenaded by an amazing piano player!

He could play anything without looking at sheet music.

He did a Wizard of Oz rendition, which I enjoyed!

We each ordered a choice of tea and received our own sterling silver teapot with that choice.  There were homemade scones with Devonshire cream shipped straight from England, preserves, pastries, and finger sandwiches (I love cucumber sandwiches!)

 

Tenley also enjoyed "high tea - urr, milk"!

What a delightful afternoon!

Thank you, Jason and Mindy, for this treat!!

Across the street is The Navarre.  I had to look it up.  It was built as a school for girls in 1880.  In 1886, it became a co-ed school.  After the owner died, it was sold to two notorious gamblers. who turned it into a gentleman's club.  They lost it in a gambling game to two other gambler's and they renamed it The Navarre, after King Henry Navarre, who loved decadence and high living.  They offered public dining and gambling and a place of ill repute on the top floors.  When the Brown Palace was built, a tunnel was built between the two buildings in order to share coal, but also to transport gentlemen discretely to the Navarre.  The tunnel was eventually sealed and filled in with masonry to keep the street above from collapsing in.  It is now a Western art museum.

Trinity United Methodist built in 1887

Later that evening, we three girls went out to eat some more!