The Ellis Hotel | |
---|---|
General information | |
Location | 176 Peachtree Street NW, Atlanta |
Opening | 1913 |
Management | Colwen Hotels |
Technical details | |
Floor count | 15 |
Design and construction | |
Architect(s) | William Lee Stoddart |
Other information | |
Number of rooms | 127 |
Website | |
Ellis Hotel | |
The Ellis Hotel | |
Coordinates | 33°45′30″N84°23′16″W / 33.7583°N 84.3878°W |
NRHP reference No. | 09000185 |
Added to NRHP | March 31, 2009 |
The Ellis Hotel, formerly known as the Winecoff Hotel, is located at 176 Peachtree Street NW, in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, US. [1] [2] Designed by William Lee Stoddart, the 15-story building opened in 1913. [3] It is located next to 200 Peachtree, which was built as the flagship Davison's. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 31, 2009. The Ellis Hotel is best known for a fire that occurred there on December 7, 1946, in which 119 people died.
The Ellis Hotel (previously the Winecoff Hotel) is best known for a fire that occurred there on December 7, 1946, in which 119 people died. It remains the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history, [4] and prompted many changes in building codes. Guests at the hotel that night included teenagers attending a Hi-Y and Tri-Hi-Y Youth-in-Government conference (Youth Assembly) sponsored by the State YMCA of Georgia, Christmas shoppers, and people in town to see Song of the South . Arnold Hardy, a 24-year-old graduate student at Georgia Tech, became the first amateur to win a Pulitzer Prize in photography for his snapshot of a woman in mid-air after jumping from the 11th floor of the hotel during the fire. [5] The jumper was Daisy McCumber, 41. She sustained multiple broken bones and eventually had a leg amputated. [6] [7] Under these circumstances, she still worked until her retirement. [8] She died in 1992. [6] [7]
In April 1951, the hotel reopened as the Peachtree Hotel on Peachtree, and was now equipped with both fire alarms and automated sprinkler systems. In 1967, it was donated to the Georgia Baptist Convention for housing the elderly, and then repeatedly sold to a series of potential developers.[ citation needed ]
The gutted lobby served as a souvenir shop during the 1996 Summer Olympics.[ citation needed ]
After over two decades of vacancy, a $23 million renovation project began in April 2006. The project restored the building into a boutique luxury hotel, called the Ellis Hotel after the street that runs along the north side of the building. It was reopened on October 1, 2007.[ citation needed ]
Five Points is a district of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, the primary reference for the downtown area.
The Margaret Mitchell House is a historic house museum located in Atlanta, Georgia. The structure was the home of author Margaret Mitchell in the early 20th century. It is located in Midtown, at 979 Crescent Avenue. Constructed by Cornelius J. Sheehan as a single-family residence in a then-fashionable section of residential Peachtree Street, the building's original address was 806 Peachtree Street. The house was known as the Crescent Apartments when Mitchell and her husband lived in Apt. 1 on the ground floor from 1925 to 1932. While living there, Mitchell wrote the bulk of her Pulitzer Prize-winning 1936 novel, Gone with the Wind.
The Pulitzer Prize for Photography was one of the American Pulitzer Prizes annually awarded for journalism. It was inaugurated in 1942 and replaced by two photojournalism prizes in 1968: the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography and "Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography", which was later renamed Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography in 2000.
The Atlanta Fire Rescue Department is the fire department of the City of Atlanta and provides fire protection and first responder emergency medical services to the city of Atlanta, Georgia. The department is responsible for an area of 132.6 square miles (343 km2) with over 519,000 residents. As of January 21, 2021, the Fire Chief is Rod Smith.
The following are the Pulitzer Prizes for 1947.
Hardy Ivy (1779–1842) is said to be the first person of European descent to permanently settle in what is now the city of Atlanta, Georgia.
Arnold Hardy was the first amateur photographer who won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Photography.
The Hotel District is a neighborhood in Downtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The district's name is derived from it being the home to many hotels, one of them being the famous Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel. The Hotel District is generally considered to be bounded by the Downtown Connector to the east, Five Points to the south, Centennial Olympic Park to the west, and Midtown to the north. The district's primary thoroughfare is Peachtree Street, which contains most of the restaurants, hotels, and office buildings. The intersection of Andrew Young International Boulevard and Peachtree Street forms the heart of the district.
William Lee Stoddart (1868–1940) was an architect who designed urban hotels in the Eastern United States. Although he was born in Tenafly, New Jersey, most of his commissions were in the South. He maintained offices in Atlanta and New York City.
The Georgian Terrace Hotel in Midtown Atlanta, part of the Fox Theatre Historic District, was designed by architect William Lee Stoddart in a Beaux-Arts style that was intended to evoke the architecture of Paris. Construction commenced on July 21, 1910, and ended on September 8, 1911, and the hotel opened on October 2, 1911. The George C. Fuller Construction Company was contractor, and the developer was Joseph F. Gatins, Jr.
The Henry Grady Hotel was a hotel in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The building, designed by architect G. Lloyd Preacher, was completed in 1924 at the intersection of Peachtree Street and Cain Street, on land owned by the government of Georgia that had previously been occupied by the official residence of the governor. The hotel, which was named after journalist Henry W. Grady, was owned by the state and leased to operators. During the mid-1900s, the hotel typically served as the residence of state legislators during the legislative sessions, and it was an important location for politicking, with President Jimmy Carter later saying, "[m]ore of the state's business was probably conducted in the Henry Grady than in the state capitol". In the late 1960s, the government decided to not renew the building's lease when it expired in 1972, and it was demolished that year. The land was sold to developers and the Peachtree Plaza Hotel was built on the site. At the time of its completion in 1976, it was the tallest hotel building in the world.
The Winecoff Hotel fire, of December 7, 1946, was the deadliest hotel fire in American history, killing 119 hotel occupants, including the hotel's original owners. Located at 176 Peachtree Street in Atlanta, Georgia, the Winecoff Hotel was advertised as "absolutely fireproof". While the hotel's steel structure was indeed protected against the effects of fire, its interior finishes were combustible and the building's exit arrangements consisted of a single stairway serving all fifteen floors. All of the hotel's occupants above the fire's origin on the third floor were trapped, and the fire's survivors either were rescued from upper-story windows or jumped into nets held by firemen.
The Hotel Aragon was a six-story, 125-room hotel at 169 Peachtree Street NE, at the southeast corner of Ellis Street in Atlanta, in what is today the Peachtree Center area of downtown. It was a major addition to the city's hotel capacity at its completion in 1892, cost $250,000, and was built and owned by George Washington Collier. It was the only major hotel in the city not adjacent to Union Station. A 1902 guidebook describes the Aragon as one of three first-class hotels in the city, together with the Kimball House and the Majestic Hotel.
Francis Palmer Smith was an architect active in Atlanta and elsewhere in the Southeastern United States. He was the director of the Georgia Tech College of Architecture from 1909–1922.
The Leyden House was one of Atlanta's most historic homes. It was located on 124 Peachtree Street NE between Cain and Ellis streets.
Tenth Street is a street in Midtown Atlanta, Georgia.
The Fire Station No. 11 in Atlanta, Georgia, at 30 North Ave., was built in 1907. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The Carnegie Building is a historic building located at 141 Carnegie Way in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Built in 1925 as the Wynne-Claughton Building, the 12-story building was designed by architect G. Lloyd Preacher. It was designated an Atlanta Historic Building in 1990 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.
Founded in the 1830s as a railroad terminus, Atlanta experienced rapid growth in its early years to become a major economic center of Georgia, with several hotels built to accommodate for this growth. Following its destruction during the Civil War, Atlanta experienced a resurgence and another hotel boom commenced in the late 1800s through the early 1900s. In the later half of the 20th century, hotel skyscrapers began to appear on the skyline, including what was at the time the tallest hotel in the United States. Later, a trend emerged of converting old office buildings into boutique hotels.
The 'jumping lady' was Daisy McCumber, a 41-year-old Atlanta secretary who, contrary to countless captions, survived the 11-story jump. She broke both legs, her back, and her pelvis. She underwent seven operations in 10 years and lost a leg, but then worked until retirement. She died in 1992 aged 87, having never revealed even to family that she was the woman in Hardy's photo.