The Guest Room
Narrated by Museum Curator of Collections Stephanie McGuire
THE GUEST ROOM
There are no historic photographs of this room, so rather than guess what it looked like, we have decided to re-purpose it as an exhibit space where we can tell the stories about the larger Brown family, their Capitol Hill home and its restoration.
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Letters and census records show an evolving list of relatives, wards, and friends who came and went from this house over the Brown’s times. In fact, so many relatives lived here at one point, they rented a house down the street to accommodate them all.
MARGARET'S PARENTS
Johanna and John Tobin at 1340 Pennsylvania. Courtesy of Denver Public Library.]
Margaret’s parents, John and Johanna Tobin, both lived here at the end of their lives. The Tobins were both hard-working Irish immigrants who ensured an education for their six children. Daughter Margaret was born in 1867 just blocks from the banks of the Mississippi River in Hannibal, MO. This was just after the Civil War had ended and Hannibal had been in the middle of a complicated war fought over enslavement.
HOW HAVE YOUR PARENT’S VIEWS SHAPED YOUR BELIEFS?
MARGARET'S NIECES
Margaret’s three nieces from her brother Daniel also lived here for a short time after their mother passed away. Florence, Grace, and Helen Tobin each went on to be accomplished performers and humanitarians. Niece Helen was closest to Margaret and was often confused as her daughter. During her Aunt Margaret’s suffrage work, Helen remarked to newspapers that she didn’t understand all the fuss about women getting the right to vote.
