The lavishly elegant Brown Palace Hotel and Spa is not to be missed when visiting Denver, but don't forget that there's a great deal more to do in this culture-rich city.

On August 12, 1892, The Brown Palace Hotel and Spa opened its doors and has remained open and welcoming guests every day since. Anchoring the bustling financial and cultural districts of Denver, The Brown has played host to presidents, prime ministers, and celebrities alike. Every U.S. president since Teddy Roosevelt has visited The Brown, with one exception—Calvin Coolidge. Four of the hotel's suites are even named after its famous residents: the Beatles Suite, Eisenhower Suite, Reagan Suite, and Teddy Roosevelt Suite.

In the late 1800s, people from all over the country were still flocking to the West seeking their fortunes in gold and silver. Either on their way to or from the mountains, everyone stopped in Denver, including hotel founder Henry Cordes Brown, a carpenter-turned-real-estate entrepreneur from Ohio. Brown purchased several acres of land, including a triangular plot at the corners of Broadway, Tremont, and 17th streets, where he grazed his cow.

Architect Frank E. Edbrooke was hired to design the Brown hotel. He designed several landmark buildings, including Central Presbyterian Church and the Masonic Temple Building, and no expense was spared on the Brown Hotel project. Work began in 1888. Edbrooke designed Brown's hotel in the Italian Renaissance style, using Colorado red granite and Arizona sandstone for the building's exterior. As a finishing touch, artist James Whitehouse was commissioned to create 26 medallions carved in stone, each depicting a native Rocky Mountains animal. The hotel's "silent guests" can still be seen between the seventh floor windows on the hotel's exterior.

Inside, Edbrooke designed an atrium lobby with balconies rising eight floors above ground and surrounded by cast-iron railings with ornate grillwork panels. No one knows for sure why, but two of the grillwork panels were installed—and remain—upside down. Edbrooke imported onyx from Mexico for the lobby, the Grand Salon (now the Onyx Room) on the second floor, and the eighth floor ballroom. The 12,400 surface feet of onyx, a semiprecious variety of quartz, was the most ever used in a single building at the time the hotel was constructed. The hotel's original artesian well is located beneath the lobby floor at a depth of 720 feet and still provides water to every faucet in the hotel.

The entire project cost $1.6 million plus another $400,000 for furniture, an amazingly high number for its time.

The Brown Hotel was hailed as the second fireproof building in America. No wood was used for the floors and walls, which were instead made of hollow blocks of porous terra-cotta fireproofing. At the time it opened, it had 400 guest rooms that rented for between $3 and $5 a night. Today it has 241.

The hotel prepares all of its own baked goods (except for crackers and sandwich bread) in a unique, 50-year-old carousel oven, one of only three in the world known to exist and still function.

A marvel to look at, The Brown Palace Hotel and Spa offers luxurious accommodations, rich furnishings, stunning décor, award-winning cuisine, and an overall relaxing experience unparalleled by other hotels in the area.

Things to Do in Denver

For a listing of Denver's top attractions, from museums to resorts, click here.

To see a list of Denver's most popular museums, click here.

Denver's cultural community is impressive. For a listing of multicultural attractions on Denver's art scene, click here.

Like to shop? To find out where the best shopping in town is, click here.

When the weather's right, be sure to hit the links on some of Denver's most beautiful golf courses.

For a listing of featured downtown restaurants, click here.

For more information on activities in Denver, click here.

For more about the Brown Palace Hotel and Spa, see "Take Time for Tea," on page 82 of the May/June 2009 issue of Cooking with Paula Deen magazine.