![]() The hotel’s modern incarnation as the Ellis can attest to that. Sadly, the Winecoff itself was absolutely fireproof, just not the combustible interiors. This young lady survived her fall and the photographer was granted a Pulitzer Prize for this photograph. Photographer Arnold Hardy was able to capture this image of Daisy McCumber as she plummeted towards the sidewalk. The sun rose that day to reveal 119 lives snuffed out among the still smoking carnage. The alley soon became dangerous as bodies began to fall. Others tried to propel themselves across to the Mortgage Guarantee Building across the alley off Ellis Street. However, ladders were only able to reach people partway up the burning hotel.Īs flames licked at their doors, guests began jumping or trying to lower themselves on improvised ropes of bed sheets. The Atlanta Fire Department impressively responded with nearly 400 firefighters, 22 engine companies and 11 ladder trucks, four of them aerial. As the old hotel lacked modern fire preventive measures and the fire spread wildly up the single escape stairwell trapping everyone above it. Starting in a third-floor corridor, the fire spread quickly. The 15-storey hotel, often advertised as ‘absolutely fireproof,’ was booked to capacity with Christmas shoppers, families in town to see the premier of the new Disney film, Song of the South, and some 40 Georgia high school students in town for a mock legislative session. ![]() It was here in the early morning hours of Saturday, December 7th, 1946, that a fire broke out. The Ellis opened originally in 1913 as the Winecoff Hotel. This boutique hotel may offer ghosts in addition to its usual amenities. On any haunted tour of the city, one of the primary stops should be 176 Peachtree St.-The Ellis Hotel. In downtown Atlanta, the city’s most famous thoroughfare, Peachtree Street, is lined with many possibly haunted landmarks.
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