Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1904-03-03
Collapse of a Skyscraper.

killed, about a score injured, and eight
or ten. all of whom are believed to be
dead, are missing through the callapse
Yesterday OF the steel skeleton OF the
Hotel Darlington, lc-story apartment
house in course of erection at 81 west
Forth-sixth street, New York. The
steel frame work bad been erected as far
az the eleventh floor, and the structure
was svarming with iron workers, masons
and laborers, when, without an in
stant's warning, the upper floor sagged
and collapsed, and the whole structure
fell with a crash that was heard for
blocks. and shook all the buildings in
the vicinity.
A por. ion of the steel frame fell upon
the rear OF the Hotel Patterson, on west
For y-seventh street, crushing in the
wall of lbe dining-room and killing Mrs.
Ella Lacey Storrs, the wife OF Frank
Stons, a wealthy resident Of Rye, West
chester county, as she was sitting at
luncheon with the wife of Rev. DIR. Minot
Savage, who escaped uninjured.
The other dead, so far as known, are
Frederick Morrils, foreman OF the Loeb
ling Construction Company; Farrell 5.
Fagan, derrick man, aud two rnidenti-
fed men, apparently laborers.
The more seriously injured, with one
exception, laborers on the building ale;
Joseph Sinto, Andrew Maher; James
w. Smith, Henry Strobe, Tony Smith,
Dennis McGinnis, Frederick Weissen-
muller. Gottlieb Wittreau, 3. ViddrOl,
Jose Genty and Ernest Meier, the last
named waiter employed in the Hotel
Patterson.
Among those missing is Frank J.
Allison, of the Allison Realty Company,
the builders of The hotel, vino is known
to have been in the building when 1t
fell. Efforts to recover the bodies of the
dead and rescue those imprisoned in the
wreck were begun by the fremen i'm
mediately after the crash, and the work
of searching the ruins will be continued
all night. Owing to the enormous mass
of metal wreckage days may elapse be-
fore all the bodies are recovered.
The cause of the disaster generally
accepted is the overlooking of the floors.
That criminal carelessness is chargeable
to somebody is shown by the fact that
the building department bad placed re-
peated "violations'' against the building,
the last one being filed yesterday at the
instance Of Inspector Charles French be-
cause '4he 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
consequences.
Adjoining the collapsed building on
the west is the four-story brownstone
residence 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
street. The occupants escaped uninjured
On the east side is house occupied by
A. Walpole Cragie as a school for boys.
The pupils had gone home to luncheon a
few minutes before the crash occurred.
Some of the beams struck the house, tear
ing off portion of the roof and smash
lug 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 Meier, the waiter, were in
stantly buried under the debris of the
roof and walls. Mrs. Savage barely es-
caped being struck, but her skirt was
pinned to the floor by mass OF fallen
bricks. Mrs. Storrs was breathing when
extricated, but died within few min
utes. The waiter is believed to be fatally
injured. The other occupants of the
dining-room escaped unhurt.
Three hundred men worked all night
in the ruins of the Hotel Darlington in
an endeavor to uncover the bodies of the
workmen who we're carried down 10 death.
Up to this morning five bodies had beer
; recovered and rescuers reported that eigh'
other bodies were in sight. There ar'
sixteen injured men in the hospitals
Serious charges are made that lnierlcI
material wac used, and that the work c
construction Was poorly done and one Q
the foremen has been arrested.
Nri&ioicad