The Brown Hotel is a historic 16-story
hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a ref ...
in downtown
Louisville
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
...
,
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
,
U.S.
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, located on the corner of Fourth and Broadway. It contains 294 rooms and over 24,000 ft² of meeting space. It also contains special amenities, such as a
fitness center
A health club (also known as a fitness club, fitness center, health spa, and commonly referred to as a gym) is a place that houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise.
In recent years, the number of fitness and health se ...
and three
restaurant
A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on the premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearan ...
s. It is listed in the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
. The Brown Hotel is a member of
Historic Hotels of America
Historic Hotels of America is a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation that was founded in 1989 with 32 charter members; the program accepts nominations and identifies hotels that have maintained their authenticity, sense of pla ...
, the official program of the
National Trust for Historic Preservation
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 by ...
.
History
The hotel which featured 600 rooms, ballrooms, shoppes, meeting rooms, and restaurants, was designed by
Preston J. Bradshaw and opened in 1923, only 10 months after construction began. The hotel cost $4 million, and was funded and owned by
James Graham Brown
James Graham Brown (August 18, 1881 — March 20, 1969) was an American businessman and real estate developer best known as the builder of the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky and for his philanthropy.
Early life
Born in Madison, Ind ...
, a local entrepreneur who wanted to compete with The
Seelbach Hotel just a few blocks down the street. The hotel quickly became a central part of the growing downtown Louisville economy and the social lives of the locals.
In 1926 the hotel chef Fred K. Schmidt introduced the
Hot Brown
A Hot Brown sandwich (sometimes known as a Louisville Hot Brown or Kentucky Hot Brown) is an American hot sandwich originally created at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, by Fred K. Schmidt in 1926. It is a variation of traditional Welsh ...
sandwich, consisting of an open-faced turkey sandwich with bacon with a delicate
Mornay sauce
A Mornay sauce is a béchamel sauce with shredded or grated cheese added. Some variations use different combinations of Gruyère, Emmental cheese, white cheddar or even Parmesan cheese. A Mornay sauce made with cheddar is commonly used to make m ...
. The Hot Brown became rather popular among locals and visitors alike. The sandwich has been featured in various programs about regional cuisine, such as the 2002
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
documentary ''
Sandwiches That You Will Like
''Sandwiches That You Will Like'' is a 2002 PBS documentary by Rick Sebak of WQED. The unique sandwich offerings of cities across the United States (although excepting two from California, the remaining sandwiches all originate no further we ...
'' and a 2011 episode of the
Travel Channel
Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, which had previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in New York, New York, United S ...
's ''
Man v. Food
''Man v. Food'' is an American food reality television series. It premiered on December 3, 2008 on the Travel Channel. The program was originally hosted by actor and food enthusiast Adam Richman. In each episode, Richman explores the "big food" o ...
''.
Many famous people have visited the hotel in the past and present.
David Lloyd George
David Lloyd George, 1st Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor, (17 January 1863 – 26 March 1945) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1916 to 1922. He was a Liberal Party politician from Wales, known for leading the United Kingdom during t ...
, former
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...
, was the first person to sign the guest register, and Queen
Marie of Romania
Marie (born Princess Marie Alexandra Victoria of Edinburgh; 29 October 1875 – 18 July 1938) was the last Queen of Romania as the wife of King Ferdinand I.
Marie was born into the British royal family. Her parents were Prince Alfred, D ...
also visited. The famous
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
Lily Pons
Alice Joséphine Pons (April 12, 1898 – February 13, 1976), known professionally as Lily Pons, was a French-American operatic soprano and actress who had an active career from the late 1920s through the early 1970s. As an opera singer, she s ...
was allowed to bring her pet lion along with her, and it roamed free in her room. Actor
Victor Mature
Victor John Mature (January 29, 1913 – August 4, 1999) was an American stage, film, and television actor who was a leading man in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. His best known film roles include ''One Million B.C.'' (1940), '' My Darlin ...
was an
elevator operator
An elevator operator (North American English), liftman (in Commonwealth English, usually lift attendant), or lift girl (in British English), is a person specifically employed to operate a manually operated elevator.
Description
Being an effec ...
at the hotel before becoming famous; he lost his job after abandoning his post at the elevator and leaving a simple note so that he could go dance with a girl during one of the hotel's many roof-top parties.
James Winkfield
James Winkfield (April 12, c. 1880–1882 – March 23, 1974) was a Thoroughbred jockey and horse trainer from Kentucky, best remembered as the last African American to ride a winner in the Kentucky Derby (1902).
Winkfield was born in Chiles ...
, a Black jockey who won two Kentucky Derbies was refused admittance at the front door in 1961.
The combination of
Prohibition
Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic ...
and the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
led to hard times for the hotel in the early 1930s. The Brown defaulted on its loan, and the bank threatened
foreclosure
Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the collateral for the loan.
Formally, a mortg ...
. Employees were asked to work for periods without pay, and the Brown was only able to stay open due to the employees' willingness to do so.
When the
1937 Flood hit Louisville, the Brown's first floor was flooded. Although there was no electricity, the hotel stayed open, and many people whose homes were submerged stayed at the hotel. One resident recalled: "We were rowing down Broadway and there was The Brown Hotel. The doors were open and the place was filled with water so we just rowed our boat in one door, went through the lobby and rowed out another." Elmer H. Weck, a bell captain of the hotel at this time, is recorded to have caught a two-pound fish in the lobby. The fish was later mounted and hung in the hotel lobby for a number of years.
WAVE
In physics, mathematics, and related fields, a wave is a propagating dynamic disturbance (change from equilibrium) of one or more quantities. Waves can be periodic, in which case those quantities oscillate repeatedly about an equilibrium (res ...
radio, located on the 15th floor, was the only radio station to remain in operation in its own facilities during the flood.
Like much of the rest of the nation, economic recovery began in the buildup to
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Thousands of soldiers passing through from
Fort Knox
Fort Knox is a United States Army installation in Kentucky, south of Louisville and north of Elizabethtown. It is adjacent to the United States Bullion Depository, which is used to house a large portion of the United States' official gold res ...
would stay in the area, and the hotel would frequently be filled to capacity. The week of the
Kentucky Derby
The Kentucky Derby is a horse race held annually in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, almost always on the first Saturday in May, capping the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. The competition is a Grade I stakes race for three-year ...
was and still is the most successful week of every year, celebrities such as
The Duke of Windsor
Edward VIII (Edward Albert Christian George Andrew Patrick David; 23 June 1894 – 28 May 1972), later known as the Duke of Windsor, was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India from 20 January 1 ...
,
Harry Truman
Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...
,
Elizabeth Taylor
Dame Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor (February 27, 1932 – March 23, 2011) was a British-American actress. She began her career as a child actress in the early 1940s and was one of the most popular stars of classical Hollywood cinema in the 1950s. ...
,
Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford (born Lucille Fay LeSueur; March 23, ncertain year from 1904 to 1908was an American actress. She started her career as a dancer in traveling theatrical companies before debuting on Broadway. Crawford was signed to a motion pict ...
,
Gene Autry
Orvon Grover "Gene" Autry (September 29, 1907 – October 2, 1998), nicknamed the Singing Cowboy, was an American singer, songwriter, actor, musician, rodeo performer, and baseball owner who gained fame largely by singing in a crooning s ...
,
Eva Marie Saint
Eva Marie Saint (born July 4, 1924) is an American actress of film, theatre and television. In a career spanning over 70 years, she has won an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award, alongside nominations for a Golden Globe Award and two Brit ...
, and
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...
have stayed here during this time.
As the city declined in the 1960s and 1970s, the fortunes of The Brown declined as well. Though $1.5 million was spent in 1965 to modernize the Brown and another downtown hotel, attendance remained low. Then on March 20, 1969, James Graham Brown died, this in turn led to the further decline of the hotel and in 1971 after financial shortfalls The Brown closed. The building was sold to the
Louisville Public Schools and became the headquarters for the city school system. When Louisville and Jefferson County schools merged in 1975 the new school system used the county schools' VanHoose Education Center as its headquarters and the
Brown Education Center housed other school administrative offices.
The city of Louisville began to make many moves to revitalize the downtown area in the 1980s. As part of this project the "Broadway Group" was formed, which acquired The Brown from
Jefferson County Public Schools and began its renovation in 1983. The schools took a toll on the building, however, the grand public rooms were spared and were able to be saved. After the restoration of the hotel it was reopened as a Hilton Hotel. In 1993 the hotel was purchased by the
Camberley Hotel Company who furthered the restoration and returned the hotel to its former glory, although the once two-story Bluegrass room became a single story room with three other meeting rooms overhead. Another alteration made to the hotel was the demolition of the dividing wall in every other room thus doubling the size of each guest room and taking the hotel from 600 rooms to its present 293 guest rooms. After the restorations and alterations were completed, Camberley sold the hotel to its present owner
1859 Historic Hotels LTDbased out of Galveston, Texas in 2006.
In popular culture
The Brown served as location for numerous scenes in the 2005 film ''
Elizabethtown'', directed by Cameron Crowe.
See also
*
List of Historic Hotels of America
Historic Hotels of America is a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation that was founded in 1989 with 32 charter members; the program accepts nominations and identifies hotels that have maintained their authenticity, sense of pl ...
*
Galt House
The Galt House Hotel is a 25-story, 1,300-room hotel in Louisville, Kentucky, established in 1972. It is named for a nearby historic hotel erected in 1835 and demolished in 1921. The Galt House is the city's only hotel on the Ohio River.
Origi ...
*
History of Louisville, Kentucky
The geology of the Ohio River, with but a single series of rapids halfway in its length from the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers to its union with the Mississippi, made it inevitable that a town would grow on the site. Louisvi ...
*
*
Louisville Clock
The Louisville Clock (often called the Derby Clock) was a high ornamental clock that was formerly located on Fourth Street in Louisville, Kentucky.''The Encyclopedia of Louisville'' By John E. Kleber (University Press of Kentucky) page 540 It w ...
, formerly at Theatre Square (dismantled in 2015)
*
*
Seelbach Hotel
References
* Domine, David. ''Insiders' Guide to Louisville''. Guilford, CT: Globe-Pequot Press, 2010. .
* Jefferson County (KY) Public Schools Archives and Records Center
External links
* {{Official website, http://www.brownhotel.com/
Skyscraper hotels in Kentucky
National Register of Historic Places in Louisville, Kentucky
Restaurants in Louisville, Kentucky
Hotel buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky
Hotels established in 1923
Hotel buildings completed in 1923
1923 establishments in Kentucky
Skyscrapers in Louisville, Kentucky
Historic Hotels of America