Brown Hotel (Louisville, Kentucky)
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Brown Hotel Building and Theater
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| Location | 335 W Broadway Louisville, Kentucky 40202 |
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| Coordinates | 38°14′47.76″N 85°45′28.09″W / 38.2466000°N 85.7578028°WCoordinates: 38°14′47.76″N 85°45′28.09″W / 38.2466000°N 85.7578028°W |
| Area | Downtown Louisville, KY |
| Built | 1923 |
| Architect | Preston J. Bradshaw |
| Architectural style | English Renaissance |
| NRHP Reference # | 78001346 |
| Added to NRHP | February 17, 1978 |
The Brown Hotel is a historic 16-story hotel in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, U.S., located on the corner of Fourth and Broadway. It contains 293 rooms and over 24,000 ft² of meeting space. It also contains special amenities, such as a fitness center and three restaurants. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Brown Hotel is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
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, 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 sandwich, consisting of an open-faced turkey sandwich with bacon with a delicate Mornay sauce. The Hot Brown became rather popular among locals and visitors alike. The sandwich was featured on the 2002 PBS documentary Sandwiches That You Will Like.
Many famous people have visited the hotel in the past and present. David Lloyd George, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was the first person to sign the guest register, and Queen Marie of Romania also visited. The famous soprano Lily Pons was allowed to bring her pet lion along with her, and it roamed free in her room. Actor Victor Mature was an elevator operator 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.
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