LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It was a sellout crowd for the Brown Hotel's 100th birthday on Wednesday evening, and guests could get their favorite drink.

But that's something you couldn't do during Prohibition when the hotel opened in 1923.

Legend has it James Graham Brown got upset with the service at The Seelbach Hotel and decided to build his own luxury hotel on property he owned at 4th and Broadway. 

Ten months and $4 million later, the Prime Minister of England was the first guest.

The dignitaries kept coming over the years: Four Presidents starting with Truman, famous actors and countless musicians.

"The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Police, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, Diana Ross, Prince, who not just stayed here but played the piano all night in our lobby," Marc Salmon, The Brown Hotel's official historian, said.

The ever-present piano played during the birthday celebration in that second-floor lobby. Are you wondering why the lobby is on the second floor?

"Mr. Brown hated those noisy trolleys so he built his lobby on the second floor," Salmon said.

While people from all over the world came to visit, The Brown always got a lot of love from the locals.

"In Louisville, we get a lot of locals, people coming to the Palace Theater or The Brown Theater or to get a Hot Brown or bring a friend for a Hot Brown or come for Sunday Brunch," Salmon said.

"Rich and poor, white and Black, gathered there at that magic corner," Tom Owen, a Louisville historian, said. "It has been an iconic intersection for Louisville for many many decades."

"Everywhere I go I meet someone who met their wife at The Brown Hotel or somebody who got married at The Brown Hotel," Salmon said.

The famous Crystal Ballroom has not only hosted many weddings, but also Muhammad Ali's High School prom. After the death of Mr. Brown, the building eventually became the headquarters of the Jefferson County School Board.

Reni Ivanova knows every inch of that ballroom. She started working at The Brown when she moved to Louisville from Bulgaria in 1999.

"I enjoy to be around the hotel especially this room because so historical, I like historical," Ivanova said. "This room is so beautiful. Every time I come I find some new detail that I've never seen before."

More than 1,000 guests would show up in the late twenties for dances and hundreds of soldiers would line up during WWII to stay here on their way to Fort Knox.

The trolleys and the department stores may be gone, but The Brown remains a downtown cornerstone.

"That hotel has been a flagship survivor through the challenges of the decades," Owen said. "It's something that citizens of Louisville we can claim and be proud of."

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