The Winecoff Hotel
The Winecoff
Hotel
The
Winecoff
Hotel
Atlanta,
Georgia
There is an abandoned building on a busy street corner in downtown Atlanta. Classic in
design, few people know of its tragic past.
Next to the building is a small marker. It tells of the building's claim to fame- it was the
site of America's deadliest hotel fire.
It opened with another claim to fame, as Atlanta's tallest hotel. This distinction, however,
would lead to tragedy.
On a cold December morning in 1946, with the hotel full of students and vacationing shoppers,
it caught fire. Some say it was accidental. Others whisper arson.
The fire spread quickly up the single central stairwell, killing as it rose. People
desperately screamed for help, yet they could not be reached by ladders.
Many jumped to their deaths rather than become consumed by the flames. The adjacent sidewalk
was littered with bloody and lifeless bodies.
To this day, the building stands as a monument to the dead. But on cold winter nights, it is
said that the screams of those still trapped in the hotel can be heard.
a nameless building
the historic marker
the classic cornace
a sea of broken windows
a fifteen story tombstone
the beaten sidewalk
the old and the new
