BROWN PALACE COUP VENERABLE DENVER HOTEL OFFERS A WARMING DOSE OF VICTORIAN GENTILITY.

Byline: Story and photos by Eric Noland Travel Editor

DENVER - As the loose-leaf English tea was poured through a silver strainer laid over a cup of Royal Doulton bone china, the harpist on the grand staircase began plucking out a lovely tune. When she finished, I couldn't help but ask its name.

Ah, no wonder the melody had been so haunting. It was ``Roses From the South,'' a waltz written by Johann Strauss II in 1878. When the Brown Palace Hotel opened in 1892, there's a good chance that this very piece was performed at afternoon tea, adding elegance to a setting in which proper ladies in all their Victorian finery sipped the fragrant brew and nibbled tiny pastries.

The Brown Palace has been a Denver institution since it rose nine stories in steel, wrought iron, terra cotta, granite and sandstone on a triangular lot more than a century ago.

Its managers today are respectful caretakers of its rich legacy. And there is an awful lot to keep track of.

--A golf-obsessed President Dwight Eisenhower, who used the hotel as his western White House, used to practice his swing in his suite. In fact, he put a dent in the fireplace mantel - either with an errant backswing or a misguided chip shot. It is preserved today in a framed fragment.

--The guest book contains distinguished visitors as diverse as Theodore Roosevelt, Princess Anne, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen and the Beatles.

--Scandalous speculation abounds. Did gentlemen guests descend to the basement and traverse a tunnel to a house of ill repute across the street? During Prohibition, did they really request that gin be colored brown like Twinings tea and poured into floral cups much like the one I'm drinking from now?

The Brown Palace is so intrigued by this checkered past that it welcomes the general public on its twice-weekly history tours.

Julia Kanellos, the hotel's historian and archivist, wore period clothing while conducting our Saturday tour. At one point she paused at two lobby murals that portray travel in frontier times and in the 1930s.

``These murals were painted 66 years ago. How things have changed with travel.'' She looked around at our group of nearly 30 people and asked playfully, ``Am I the only one in a dress?'' Turns out she was.

Like many historic hotels, the Brown Palace endeavors to strike a delicate balance. It wants to be sensitive to the demands and quirks of the modern traveler while respecting the heritage and traditions of this venerable hotel.

So there are two-line cordless phones in the rooms, modern marble floors in some bathrooms and wireless Internet in the lobby.

But there are also original sconces, cast-iron filigree railings and the stained-glass ceiling in the atrium lobby, where guests are checked in at the same front desk that has been serving that function for 112 years. The hotel still has its own bakery - in order to produce its bread, tea cakes and even the macaroons that are placed bedside at turn-down service - and relies solely on water from its two 750-foot Artesian wells.

In today's travel climate, it might be difficult for a 241-room, nine-floor hotel to compete as anything more than a boutique inn, but the Brown Palace headed off that issue quite some time ago. It built a modern tower just across Tremont Place in the late 1950s. Today it's a Comfort Inn, affiliated with the historic hotel and able to better accommodate business conferences and large wedding parties.

The Brown Palace derives understandable pride from one aspect of its history: It has never closed. Not during the Depression, not during World War II, not during numerous renovations that have been conducted over the years. The hotel opened with 400 rooms, only 100 of which had private bathrooms, and massive ballrooms rather than restaurants, so you know it needed some work.

Currently, floors 3 through 7 are being systematically upgraded. New beds and duvets have just been added, and the bathrooms are getting new tile and fixtures, according to hotel publicist Deborah Dix.

The decades of change have provided rich layers to this hotel's story. In the late 1930s, for example, the top two floors were made over into the Skyline Apartments, employing a style that was all the rage at the time - art deco. The units served permanent residents, the last of which didn't move out until the 1980s.

A few years ago, they were thoroughly renovated again, with a fresh gleam given to the art deco design elements. Today, it's a little disorienting to get on a lobby elevator in Victorian Colorado and step off eight floors later into the sleek glamour of the 1930s (curved wall corners, terrazzo floors, stylish light fixtures), but this is a profoundly comfortable environment for bedding down for the night.

The bathroom of my room had polished gray granite surfaces, inlaid with marble in the floor. There was a generous soaking tub as well as a separate, glassed-in shower. The luxurious, pillow-top bed was covered with a rich down comforter - a welcome indulgence at 5,280 feet of elevation in winter. The robes and towels were Frette (though the towels, with modern wide ribs, were not found to be particularly soft).

The top two floors are sealed off from the atrium by a wall of glass brick, enhancing privacy and quiet.

Guests desirous of decadent comfort might want to ask about some of the Brown Palace's themed suites, which pay homage to some of its famous guests.

The Eisenhower is Colonial/Federalist ``with a little Pennsylvania thrown in,'' said Dix. (Eisenhower used the hotel as a base of operations, but also spent a great deal of time at the home of wife Mamie Doud Eisenhower's mother on Lafayette Street.)

The Ronald Reagan Suite is in a Santa Barbara ranch motif, with curved doorways and a lot of leather. Teddy Roosevelt's room is Sagamore Hill, with dark wood paneling and safari decor. And the Beatles Suite includes a framed history and artifacts of their visit in 1964, plus a photo of Ringo Starr dashing toward a service entrance to escape manic fans.

No matter what room you stay in - or even if you're next door at the Comfort Inn - the Brown Palace's public rooms provide pleasant links to its past.

The hotel staff delights in guests who buy into its traditions, but it doesn't get fussy when others don't. One night at the fine-dining Palace Arms restaurant, for example, none of the tuxedoed waiters in the Palace Arms restaurant looked askance at the patron who sat near me, brazenly defying the jacket-for-men dress code that has been in effect since the hotel opened.

The Palace Arms, decorated in 1950 by an owner who had an unnatural fixation on Napoleon, feels like old money - a woody, leathery, dark restaurant festooned with battle flags.

The cuisine appears geared to a guest from the past who had spent the day hunting in the Front Range foothills. Among the featured entrees during my visit were a New York steak cut of King Canyon bison ($40), a pan-seared guinea hen ($32) and the restaurant's signature dish, rack of Colorado lamb ($43).

The menu is four-seasonal. During my visit in October, pumpkin and squash proliferated - a Hawaiian opah special was accompanied by a miniature pumpkin stuffed with shrimp.

It's a classy and cozy setting, but the service got to be a bit much when the kitchen runner brought out my main course, kept warm beneath a silver domed cover. He hesitated, with his hand poised dramatically on the handle, and said, ``Are you ready?'' It seemed like an awful lot of fuss for a roasted veal chop ($38), tasty as it was with grilled rutabaga and red flame jus.

The wine list runs to 37 pages and appears targeted as much to the awards committee at Wine Spectator magazine as to diners, but if you're daunted by the triple-digit cabernets, be advised that the Palace Arms also has an extensive selection of wines by the glass and half bottles.

A less formal but comfortable spot is the Ship Tavern, which opened in 1934 shortly after the repeal of Prohibition. Its nautical theme doesn't make much sense in Denver. Turns out the owner (same guy who fancied Napoleon) picked up a collection of clipper ship models while in Cape Cod and opted for the old salt decor here: ship's clock, Honduran mahogany bar, crow's nest on a load-bearing pillar, belaying pins, lots of brass.

The bar, which appears to be lit by whale-oil lamps, offers hearty soups and an impressive array of microbrews, and I found the service to be excellent.

In the evenings Wednesday through Saturday, John Kite settles in at the piano and lets amateur crooners try their hand at Broadway show tunes. It creates a festive environment, but many of the participants seemed determined to draw the attention of patrons away from the sports events on the silent TVs overhead, and hammed it up with Pavarottian volume.

Another popular dining room is Ellyngton's, which occupies the triangular corner where the silk-draped Casanova Ballroom stood in the 1920s and early '30s. Ellyngton's has trout on the menu at breakfast and is renowned for its Sunday brunch.

The Churchill Bar, meanwhile, is a throwback retreat, a cigar room with the ambience of a private English club. Bookshelves line the walls, a humidor holds numerous selections (in case you didn't bring along your favorite Arturo Fuente) and a high-tech ventilation system seeks to make life tolerable for any nonsmoking companions.

And then, of course, there's tea in the atrium lobby, served daily from noon until 4 p.m.

I opted for The Brown's Tea ($20.95) at about midafternoon, and soon concluded that I'd be eating dinner much later than usual. The tray set before me contained little tea sandwiches of shrimp prosciutto, spinach and watercress (with the crusts cut off, of course); two scones with generous swirls of rich Devonshire cream; and an array of six little pastries.

The pastry selection changes daily. On a weekday afternoon last month, the platter was adorned with such treats as honey apricot Bavarian, blood orange poppy-seed petit four, cassis tartlet, three-nut diamond-shaped torte, peppermint chocolate cookie and flourless chocolate torte with guava mousse. If your sweet tooth still isn't appeased, brown and white lumps of sugar can be dropped into your tea with silver tongs.

My experience was defiled only by the boor at the next table who talked loudly on his cell phone. Typically inane cell chatter: ``I'm sitting here at tea!''

Fortunately, the Strauss waltz lasted longer than he did.

Eric Noland, [phone]

eric.noland(at)dailynews.com

IF YOU GO

GETTING THERE: The Brown Palace Hotel, at 321 17th St., is convenient to the Colorado Statehouse and the 16th Street Mall. The Denver Performing Arts Complex can be reached by the free mall shuttle.

RATES: Brochure rates from $279 per night. A number of packages are available. A Beatles package is being offered this year to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the group's stay at the hotel during its historic 1964 U.S. tour. Guests receive a replica ticket of the Beatles' performance at Red Rocks Amphitheatre and a photo of Ringo Starr dashing frantically toward a hotel service entrance.

HISTORICAL TOURS: Offered Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 p.m., the 45-minute tour is free and no reservations are necessary. Tour meets at a sitting area just outside the Ship Tavern.

OFF THE SHELF: ``The Brown Palace: Denver's Grande Dame'' (Archetype Press; $24.95), written by former hotel historian Corinne Hunt and released last year, is packed with lore and a wealth of archival photos. Worthy of display on a coffee table, it is available in the hotel gift shop.

INFORMATION: [phone] or [phone]; www.brownpalace.com.

Guest Comment Card

Best attribute: Atrium lobby, lit by the sun through an original stained- glass ceiling, is an inviting place to linger in the afternoon for conversation, tea or a perhaps a glass of sherry.

Something unique: Complimentary history tours, open to all comers, cover a lot of ground - and often will provide a glimpse inside one of the themed suites.

Don't miss: Part of an evening spent at the piano bar sing-along in the Ship Tavern.

Could be better: Cell phones should be banned at afternoon tea, and the Palace Arms dress code should be enforced.

Final thought: A Denver jewel when it opened in 1892 ... and it hasn't lost a bit of its sparkle.

CAPTION(S):

6 photos, 2 boxes, map

Photo:

(1 -- 4 -- color) The atrium lobby of Denver's Brown Palace, top, is a throwback to the hotel's 1890s origins, when ladies would sip afternoon tea, above. The tradition is maintained today, with patrons treated to a dizzying array of pastries and sandwiches served on bone china, right. A vintage clock, above right, helps guide guests on their journey back in time.

Eric Noland/Travel Editor

Courtesy of Brown Palace Hotel

(5 -- 6) The Brown Palace Hotel in Denver, above, which opened in 1892, has kept the elaborate Victorian lighting fixtures and cast-iron railings of its atrium, right.

Eric Noland/Travel Editor

Box:

(1) IF YOU GO (see text)

(2) Guest Comment Card (see text)

Map:

BROWN PALACE HOTEL

Jorge Irribarren/Staff Artist