The Windsor Hotel fire occurred on March 17, 1899. The hotel located at 575

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the borough (New York City), borough of Manhattan in New York City. The avenue runs south from 143rd Street (Manhattan), West 143rd Street in Harlem to Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village. The se ...

(at the corner of East 47th Street) in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

. The seven-story hotel opened in 1873, at a time when hotel residency was becoming popular with the wealthy, and was advertised as "the most comfortable and homelike hotel in New York." It burned down on

St Patrick's Day Saint Patrick's Day, or the Feast of Saint Patrick (), is a religious and cultural holiday held on 17 March, the traditional death date of Saint Patrick (), the foremost patron saint of Ireland. Saint Patrick's Day was made an official Chris ...

1899 with great loss of life.

Fire

File:Windsor Hotel Manhattan 1899 2.jpg, Fire 1899 File:Windsor Hotel Manhattan 1899 3.jpg, Fire 1899 On St Patrick's Day 1899, while people were gathered below to watch the

parade A parade is a procession of people, usually organized along a street, often in costume, and often accompanied by marching bands, floats, or sometimes large balloons. Parades are held for a wide range of reasons, but are usually some variety ...

, a fire destroyed the hotel within 90 minutes. Supposedly the fire started when someone threw an unextinguished match out of a second-floor window and the wind blew it against the lace curtains.
p. 1900
based on ''The New York Times''. Dora Duncan, leading a dance class in the hotel at the time, managed to get her students, including her daughter,

Isadora Isidora or Isadora is a female given name of Greek origin, derived from Ἰσίδωρος, ''Isídōros'' (a compound of Ἶσις, ''Ísis'', and δῶρον, ''dōron'': "gift of he goddessIsis"). The male equivalent is Isidore. The name surviv ...

, to safety. Abner McKinley,

President McKinley William McKinley (January 29, 1843September 14, 1901) was the 25th president of the United States, serving from 1897 until his assassination in 1901. A member of the Republican Party, he led a realignment that made Republicans largely do ...

's brother, who was outside when the alarm was raised, dashed in and rescued his wife and handicapped daughter. Firemen, some of them still in their dress uniforms from the parade,Golwa
p. 1901
made heroic rescues, but they were hampered by the crowds; the fire moved too fast for them to reach every window with ladders, and water pressure was inadequate.p. 38
Almost 90 people died (estimates vary), with numerous bodies landing on the pavement; some people fell when escape ropes burned their hands, while some jumped in preference to being burned alive. The operator of the hotel, Warren F. Leland, was unable to identify his 20-year-old daughter, Helen, who had jumped from the 6th floor. The following day ''The New York Times'' featured the headlines "Windsor Hotel Lies in Ashes" and "The Hotel a Fire Trap." The fire commissioner,

Hugh Bonner Hugh Bonner (1840 in Ireland – March 13, 1908) was the sixth New York City Fire Commissioner. In 1904, after having served as fire chief of the New York City Fire Department, Bonner moved to the Philippines (at that time, an American territ ...

, blamed the construction of the hotel for the rapid spread of the fire: it did not have the cross walls that by 1899 were required by law. According to some reports, the fire escapes soon became too hot to use; other accounts state that there were none. The Windsor Hotel fire was the inspiration for John Kenlon, who later became fire chief but was a lieutenant in 1899, to become one of the most forceful advocates of a high-pressure hydrant system in New York, which was finally installed in 1907.

Aftermath

The bodies of 31 of the unidentified victims were buried in

Kensico Cemetery Kensico Cemetery, located in Valhalla, New York, Valhalla, Westchester County, New York was founded in 1889, when many New York City cemeteries were becoming full, and rural cemeteries were being created near the railroads that served the city ...

Valhalla, New York Valhalla ( ) is a hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) within the town of Mount Pleasant, in Westchester County, New York, United States, in the New York City metropolitan area. Its population was 3,162 at the 2010 U.S. Census. The name wa ...

. A monument to them was dedicated on October 9, 2014. For a few months after the fire, the landowner,

Elbridge Gerry Elbridge Gerry ( ; July 17, 1744 – November 23, 1814) was an American Founding Father, merchant, politician, and diplomat who served as the fifth vice president of the United States under President James Madison from 1813 until his death i ...

, rented the site for billboards. In 1901, he built the Windsor Arcade, an ornamental building of luxury shops. It was torn down in the 1910s; the buildings that replaced it have also been demolished. The two high-rises now occupying the site, at 565 and 575 Fifth Avenue, have no plaque or marker for the tragedy.

References

{{Coord, 40, 45, 22.6, N, 73, 58, 42.5, W, display=title 1873 establishments in New York (state) Buildings and structures demolished in 1899 Hotel buildings completed in 1873 Hotels disestablished in 1899 Defunct hotels in Manhattan Building and structure fires in New York City Burned hotels in the United States 1899 fires in the United States Hotel fires in the United States 1899 disasters in the United States 1899 in New York (state) Fifth Avenue Demolished buildings and structures in Manhattan Midtown Manhattan

Fire

Aftermath

See also

References