Barack Obama follows Calvin Coolidge's lead, snubs Brown Palace

A week after Snobama buried the Front Range in hype and hope, we're still shoveling out -- and just dug up this fun fact: The Brown Palace has hosted every U.S. president since Teddy Roosevelt first visited in 1905, thirteen years after the hotel opened, except for two: Calvin Coolidge...

By Patricia Calhoun

November 1, 2011

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A week after Snobama buried the Front Range in hype and hope, we're still shoveling out -- and just dug up this fun fact: The Brown Palace has hosted every U.S. president since Teddy Roosevelt first visited in 1905, thirteen years after the hotel opened, except for two: Calvin Coolidge and Barack Obama. When Dwight Eisenhower was president, he used the hotel as a Western White House (his wife, Mamie, was from Denver); the Brown still has an Eisenhower suite, as well as a Roosevelt suite and a Reagan suite. But don't look for an Obama suite any time soon.

When Obama stayed overnight in Denver last Tuesday, he opted for the Four Seasons, the city's newest swank hotel. And he didn't even get the presidential suite, because it was already booked.

Find additional bits of Brown history -- including its presidential tours -- here.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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