New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1921-08-10
Girl Killed, 3
Hurt i'm Collapse
OF Hotel Roof
Twenty-Ton Concrete Slab
Crashes Into the Kitchen
of Marlborough-Blenh
at Atlantic City at Lunch
Waitress, %, Is Victim
Other Noises Avert Panic
Among Guests in Dining
Room at Time of Accident
Special Dispatch to The Tyibun.


ATLANTIC CITY, Aug. 9.-Ofe wait
ress was killed, another was seriously
injured and two pantrymen were badly
hurt this afternoon, when twenty-ton
slab of concrete forming part Of the
roof and wall of kitchen Of the Marl-
borough Blenheim Hotel collapsed. The
slab fell during the luncheon hour
rush Had the collapse occurred ten
minutes earlier at least twenty wait
resses would have been crushed.
The dead girl is Evelyn Brigham,
twenty two years old, of Chevy Chase,
nd. The injured waitress is Gertrude
Mccarthy She suffered internal in
juries and deep cash across her head.
The other victims were Joseph Brown
and Levi Winder, pantrymen. 1t was
said at the hospital Tonight that the
recovery OF Miss Mccarthy WAS doubt
full.
Miss Brigham was normal school
student and was earning her way
through college by working here dur
ing the summer season.
The noise Of two large steam der
ricks, working on the Ohio Avenue side
OF the kitchen, drowned out the crash,
thereby averting a panic among the
hotel guests, who were filing into the
dining room.
Girl Instantly Killed
The spot where the accident occurred
is used for the serving of sea food and
crushed ice to mattresses carrying or
ders into the diningroom. number
of Mattresses had just left the place
after lining up at bar for orders from
the pantrymen when the slab of con
crete came crashing down. Miss Brig
liam was leaving an ice box and was hit
by the full weight of the slab. Miss
Mccarthy was struck q glancing blow
across the head and hurled to the floor
unconscious. The two pantrymen were
caught in shower of debris. Other kit
chen employees barely escaped being
struck, either by the slab itself or
chunks OF concrete scattered in all di-
rectionS.
The crash of the falling slab was
trays and dishes, dropped by terrified
mattresses as they scurried for safety.
The kitchen was Immediately filed
with a suffocating cloud of dust, pene-
trating every corner, and it was not for
several minutes that employees were
able to go to the rescue of the victims.
Several men worked strenuously in ex-
Treating the body OF Miss Brigham,
only to discover that she had been in
stantly killed.
Kitchen Filled With Brick
The hole in the wall caused by the
cave-ir was wide enough for two su
tomobl - to drive through. Bricks
fell in when the slab collapsed and
we're showered over a section about
25 by Is feet in the southwest corner
of the kitchen. The kitchen is located
on the second floor of two-story an
mex to the main building.
Two explanations were given for the
crash, but they, at best, are only theor-
les. Judge John ]. White, head of the
Marlborough Blenheim Company, own
ers of the hotel, said that the section
of the hotel where the collapse &C.
Cured had stood for fifteen years, and
had never showed any signs of weak
ness in examinations made by water
proofers He thought that slight de-
feet inside the concrete slabs of which
the roof was made might have been
there from the time the building was
constructed, and had finally caused the
roof to give way. James Patterson,
city building inspector, said that q
bubble" probably had existed in the
interior Of the slabs and that jars
caused by building repairs in other
parts of the house had brought about
the collapse.
A coroner's inquest will be held.