After being widowed, Carrie Brown supported herself and her two young boys by managing a hotel in Coffeyville. She moved to Neodesha in 1892 and bought the Occidental Hotel, which burned down three years later. She quickly rebuilt and in 1896 her new red-brick structure, the Brown Hotel, opened. The hotel is rare example of a commercial building commissioned by a 19th-century businesswoman. (NRHP)