The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-03-03
FIVE ARE KILLED
Steel Skeleton Of a New
York Sky Scraper
CoIIapses.
(By the Associated Press.)

New York, March 2.-Five persons are
known to have been killed, about a score
injured and eight or ten, all of whom
are believed to be dead, are missing
through the collapse today of the steel
skeleton Of the Hotel Darlington, a~thir-
teen story apartment house in course OF
Ell ccion at 81 West 46th street The steel
frame work had been erected as far as
the eleventh floor and the structure was
swarming with iron workers, masons and
loborers, when, without an instant's warn
ing, the upper floor sagged and collapsed
and the whole structure fell with a
crash that was heard for blocks, anc
shook all the buildings IN the vicinity
A portion of the steel frame fell upon the
rear of the Hotel Patterson On West
47th street, crushing in the wall OF the
dining room and killing Irs. Ella Lacey
Stores, the wife of Frank Stores, q
wealthy resident of Rye, Weschester
county. as she was sitting at luncheon
with the wife of the Rev. Dr. Minot Saw
age, who escaped unhurt. The other
dead, so far as known, are Frederick
Molrills, foreman Of the Roebling Con-
struction Company, Farrell S. Faggan,
derrick man, and two unidentified men,
apparently laborers.
Among those missing is Frank ]. Allison,
of the Allison Realty Company, the build
ers 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 fremen Immediately after
the crash and the work of searching the
ruins will be continued all night. Ow-
n 70 of oil ,oa1r
age days may elapse before all the bodies
are recovered.
The cause of the disaster generally ac-
cepted 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 build
ng 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 re-
peated violations against the building,
the last one being filed today az the in
stance of Inspector Charles French, be-
cause '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 warnings
those responsible for the construction of
The building went ahead regardless of con
sequences.
Adjoining the collapsed building on the
west is the f)ud story hrownstone resi-
dence, of Harold Brown. Some of the
huge iron beams struck the side of the
house and stove holes in the wall and
roof and dislodged a part of the brown
stone front which was thrown to the
-treet. The occupants escaped uninjured
On the east side is a house occupied by
\. Walpole Cragie as a school for boys.
The pupils had gone home to luncheon
few minutes before the crash occurred.
Some of the beams struck the house tear
ing off a portion of the roof and smashing
holes in The side walls.
Mrs. Storrs, whose husband is in Lon
don, England, was sitting at luncheon
with Mrs. Savage when the crash came
and she and Earnest Meier, a waiter,
we're instantly buried under the debris of
the roof and walls. Mrs. Savage barely
escaped being struck, but her skirt was
pinned to the floor by a mass of fallen
bricks. Mrs. Storrs was breathing when
aXtricated, but died within few minutes.
The waiter is believed to be fatally in