The record-union., 1894-04-30
Big FIRE At NEW ORLEANS.
The St. Charles Hotel, a Famous
HOstelry, Destroyed
FIVE PEOPLE BELIEVED TO HAVE
LOST THEIR LIVES

IL ~ l. 41N1 LII D1JA1G LIZ " I161 V IL
LOST THEIR LIVES
Guests and Employees Escape From the
Building Half-CIad and With But
Few Personal ETecrs-One Man
Leaps From the Fourth Story, Only
to Meet With Instant Death.
Special to the RD-UNIoN
New ORLEANS, April GA few min
utes before IL o'clock last night a fire
broke out in the kitchen of the ST..
Charles Hotel. A large audience was
leaving the st. Charles Theater, block
away and in few minutes the widest
excitement prevailed in the street. AT
first the fire was in the interior of the
court and the flames made a compara-
lively small showing. AS the fire brig
ade responded hopes were entertained
for some time that anything like seri-
Gus disaster would be prevented, but
those within the walls realized that the
whole building was doomed.
Guests and employees of the hotel were
soon hurrying out of the building, half
clad, with such few personal effects as
could be snatched up in their hurried
exit from their sleeping-rooms.
AS nearly as could be ascertained, five
lives have been sacrificed. One man
| leaped from the fourth story and was al
most instantly killed. while four men
and one woman We're seen to leap from
the iron staircase leading from the rear
of the building and were ost to view in
the court, which seemed TO be almost a
solid mass of flames. One of these men
succeeded in reaching the street, but
nothing has been seen of the others. 1t
| is also reported that a child is missing,
but this lacks confirmation.
| The scene inside the hotel was one of
| terror and confusion. Terror-sJricke
half-clad guests were fleeing, with flames
their trunks with them and offering ex
travagant prices for help to convey their
| ValuableS To place of safety.
| Meanwhile the fire continued to ad-
vance toward the front of the building,
which was still intact st. Charles street
! looked dark and somber, though the
upper stories of the buildings opposite
|
of the flames.
The hopelessness of the situation, as
| far as saving the hotel was concerned,
! became evident almost as soon as the fire
| broke out. At the center of tho vast pile
of masonry which forms the hotel and
occupies over half of the square in which
IL was situated, was kind of cylinder
amphitheater built for the purpose of
giving air to the parlor, which did not
face on the street. Having got fair
start over the engines, the fire spread
with lightning rapidity. The flames
made their way into the rooms, and, find
| ing such inflammable material as bed
ding and light furniture, increased the
wild riot of it's advance. Room after
room being deserted by its terror-stricken
occupants, fell prey to the fire and
added to the magnificent pyrotechnic
display which thousands from all parts of
| the city had gathered in vast crowd to
witness.
| About A. Df. q portion of the wall on
| Gravier street. as we'll as a section on
| Common street, fell in, and small por-
ton of the Gravier-street wall fell out
ward, wrecking about fifty telegraph
wires. By 3 A. NJ. the last of the interior
of the building had tumbled in, leaving
only the St. Charles-street walls intact.
! On Gravier street the flames were eat
ing their way into three buildings which
| luL0I N6u0Q 0bW60I1 Ln6 wall vi Gn6 nOLGl
and the old Union Bank at the corner.
These buildings on Gravier street were
occupied by a number of firms engaged
in insurance and machinery business.
Besides the st. Charles Hotel, there are
other losses. The first outside building
| to be ignited was No. 169 GraVier
street, tho ground floor occupied by the
New Orleans Electric Company and the
| upper floors as a boarding house. The
| building was gutted in short time.
Several ladies were rescued from the
third story by the police. No. III Gravier
street was also badly damaged, and Nos.
| 168 and 10 Common street were almost
destroyed, and Nos I62 and 164 Com
mon street considerably damaged.
Nearly all the buildings in the rear OF the
| hotel, in the same square and fronting on
Carondolet street, were more or less
damaged by fire and water.
| The ground floor of the hotel buildings
| was occupied, and almost the entire con-
tents were destroyed, as but little ofconse-
| quence was removed. Alexander Levy,
tailor, Turf Exchange, railway and ticket
office of the Texas Pacific, loses $4,000;
barbershop, Rosenfelder d Herrick,
shoes: J. S. Smith, shirts; Teplie, tailor;
A. Bonne, shoes: ticket office OF the
Louisville and Nashville road, PIedmost
Railroad ticket Office and w. II. Brown,
coal. Beneath the staircase was the
handsome barroom owned by the widow
of Leon Lamothe.
To-day gang of workmen were set to
work removing the debris and in search
of the bodies of missing employees. The
man who was killed by leaving the
building was John Reilly. baker.
The st. Charles Hotel was built in
1853, the work of construction having
been commenced in 1885. The cost of the
building was 100000, and the ground
cost 100000. The dining-room was one
of the finest finished apartments in
America. The ceilings and walls were
handsomely frescoed by Canova, nephew
of the great Italian sculptor, and the
building contained some handsome stat
uary.
This building was destroyed by fire in
1851. The building of the new hotel was
at once commenced and the building
then completed was again destroyed last
night. 1t attracted attention throughout
the would for the fact that it was the finest
hotel in the world and the first great ho-
tel in the United States. The building
was of the same style and architecture as
the old one, with the exception of the
cupola. The new hotel was leased to
Messrs. Hildreth & Hall, elegantly fitted
and opened for business in less than
year after the first fire. Then followed a
long era of prosperity for the State, the
city and the hotel.
From 1851 to the time of the fire last
night the historic building was closely as
sociated with the history of the State and
city. In parlor 2 Jefferson Davis and the
leading Southern politicians met and
agreed upon the course to be pursued at
the Charleston convention in 1860, and
since that the fate of hundreds of aspi-
rats for public honors was sealed in the