Audacious Gypsy Adventures

Although Denver, Colorado has a lot to offer, by far the most fascinating place I visited while there was the ‘Molly’ Brown House!! (Wild side note: did you know that never a day in her life was Margaret Brown called Molly? Her obituary had a typo from Mary to Molly, and Hollywood took it and ran with it when creating Titanic, leaving her, to all of us, as: “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”. She was that. She was also a force to be reconned with.)

In her young adolescence, Margaret was determined to marry for money and here stepped in this man who made her fall head over heels in love… and the plan changed. Funny how love has a way of changing all of our plans….

They married for love, but her dreams came true when her husband struck gold while pursuing silver in the mines and made his way rich. It wasn’t long before they had all she ever dreamed of. They spent much of their time travelling the world after the newfound wealth.

Her husband and her bought a home in Denver, Colorado that is now a registered historical site. The home underwent many changes through the years and did leave the family for some years before becoming a historical site. When they purchased this home in 1894 and it had running water, electricity and a telephone, one of few personal homes at the time to be equipped with such luxury. Amazing…. I wonder what Margaret would think of internet and the education she could have gotten with Google at her fingertips?!

She was well educated, pursuing higher education in everything she did, I think we can all take a lesson or two from Margaret, Brown. Her main interest was studying people. (I feel you girl, I feel you!)

We see it all the time, poor girl made it rich- and she changed (isn’t that what half sad sap movies are about?). But that wasn’t at all Margaret Brown, she took a different route with her wealth.

After the Titanic sank and so many lost everything, she started a program to help the surviving women and children figure out how to survive after loosing their husbands, which we all know in those days were the bread winners and providers for their homes mostly exclusively. As time went on, she stayed extremely socially active and fought to destroy gender roles and pushing for women’s rights, becoming one of the first women to ever vote. She also drove ambulances during World War I, while leasing her home to the American Red Cross while she was gone.

Her home (as it is now) is filled with some of her things that she collected all over the world in her travels as well as a huge Titanic exhibit upstairs with actual Red Line items from the Titanic (inner child screaming EEEEEEEEKKKKKKKK).

I absolutely recommend taking a couple hours to meander this beautiful home and learn some things about this path-paving family as well as Denver, itself.

Again I say, Margaret Brown was a force to be reconned with.