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The Brown Hotel opened in 1923 when businessman James Graham Brown set his sights on opening a hotel to rival the nearby Seelbach Hotel. Brown invested over $4 million in finishing the 16-story building housing 600 guestrooms, ballrooms, stores, and restaurants.
The hotel thrived with famous guests, becoming a hot spot with over 1,200 guests at the nightly dinner dances hosted in the ballrooms.
The success came in spurts as the hotel navigated ups and downs including prohibition, flooding, wars, and closure. In 2006, 1859 Historic Hotels restored The Brown Hotel to the grandeur of its original Georgian Revival style.
– Rebecca Hastings, The 100 Companies