The county record. [volume] (Kingstree, S.C.) 1885-1975, 1904-03-10
n PEOPLE CRUSHED.
Collapse of Steel Skeleton of Hotel
Darlington
OTHERS MAY BE IN WRECKAGE
The Building Department Entered
Repeated Charges OF Violation
Against the Building, Which Were
Disregafded.

New York, Special-Fourteen per-
sons are believed to have been killed,
Of whom the bodies Of only FIVE have
been recovered, about a score injured,
and several are missing through the
collapse Of the steel skeleton of the
Hotel Dalington, a thirteen-story
apartment house in course of erection
at 578 West Forty-seventh street. The
steel frame had been erected as far as
the eleventh floor, and the structure
was swarming with iron workers, ma
sons and laborers, when, without an
instant's warning, the upper floor sag
ged and collapsed and the whole struc-
tHre fell with crash that was heard
for blocks and shook all the buildings
in the vicinity. A portion Of the steel
frame fell upon the rear Of the Hotel
Patterson, on West Forty-seventh
street, crushing in the wall Of the din
irg-room and killing Mrs Ella Lacey
Storrs, the wife of Frank Storrs, a
wealthy resident of Rye, Westchester
county. as she was sitting at luncheon
with the wife of Rev. DR.. Minot Saw
age. who escaped unhurt.
The other dead, go far as known, are
Frederick Morrills, foreman OF the
Roebling Construction Company; a
derrick man and two unidentified men,
apparently laborers.
Among those missing Is Frank j. Al
lison. of the Allison Realty Company,
the builders of the hotel, who is known
to have been in the building when it
fell. Efforts to recover the bodies Of the
dead and rescue those imprisoned IN
the wreck were begun by the firemen
Immediately after the crash, and the
work OF searching the ruins will be
continued all night. Owing to the enor-
mons mass Of metal wreckage, days
may elapse before all the bodies are
recovered.
The cause Of the disaster generally
accepted is the overlooking of the
floors Foreman James Halpin, IN
charge of the iron workers, stated that
there was a large quantity OF cement
and other building material on the
fifth floor, and that on the ninth floor
were eighty-three iron beams which
were to have been used in constructing
the remaining floors Of the building.
That criminal carelessness is charge
able to somebody Is shown by the fact
that the building department had
placed repeated charges Of violations"
against the building, the last one OF
Inspector Charles French, because the
side walls were more than two stories
in advance of the front walls. and the
floor beams were not properly bolted
and tied"
In spite of this and previous warn
ings. those responsible for the con-
struction of the building went ahead,
regardless of consequences.
Adjoining the collapsed building on
the west is the four-story brown-stone
residence Of Harold Brown. Some or
the huge iron beams struck the side OF
the house and stove holes in the wall
and roof. and dislodged part OF the
hrown-stone front, which was thrown
to the street The occupants escaped
uninjured. On the east side is house
occupied by A. Walpole Crage as
school for boys. This had been dis
missed few minutes before the crash.
A few beams struck the house, tearing
off portion Of the roof and smashing
holes in the side walls.
Mrs. Storrs, whose husband is in
London, was sitting at luncheon with
Mrs. Savage when the crash came, anu
she and Ernest Meier, waiter, were
Instantly buried under the debris OF the
roof and walls. Mrs. Savage barely es-
capped being struck, but her skirt was
pinned to the floor by mass OF fallen
bricks. Mrs. Storrs was breathing when
extracted, but died within few min
utes. The waiter Is believed to be IA
tally injured. The other occupants or
the dining-room escaped unhurt.