A brief but moving ceremony was held at Gainesville
High School December 7th to re-dedicate the school's plaque
honoring the memory of the four senior girls - Gwen McCoy, Ella Sue Mitchum, Suzanne Moore and Francis Thompson - who perished in the
1946 Winecoff Hotel fire.
New construction on campus has forced the plaque to be
moved a few times over the years. This latest outside placement is in a prominent space on campus and is easily visible to visitors. Originally a wall plaque, it's now affixed to a large smoothed stone and looks excellent.
Listen to Sandra Parrish's WSB Radio News report here. See Berndt Petersen's WSB-TV News report here. See Paola Suro's WXIA-TV News report here.
YMCA Youth Assembly Marks 70th Anniversary of The Winecoff Fire
Sue Broome, 16, perished in the Winecoff fire. Her great nephew and
niece, Colton, 16, and Jarrett Broome, 14, attended the YMCA Youth
Assembly luncheon November 14th.
Clear-eyed young people in their Sunday best gathered Monday at the historic Georgia Freight Depot for the annual YMCA Youth Assembly luncheon. The high school students from all across Georgia come to Atlanta each year to be delegates in a mock legislature.
To mark the 70th anniversary of the Winecoff fire, thirty Youth Assembly delegates and two faculty advisers, who were lost in the 1946 fire, were remembered with thirty-two white flowers and a moment of silence.
Nearly 800 delegates heard the story of the Winecoff fire from co-authors Sam Heys and Allen B. Goodwin. Their remarks are here.
Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran welcomes Winecoff firefighters R.B. Sprayberry, Rick Roberts and Jim Smith
The sixty-fifth anniversary of the Winecoff Hotel fire was marked by the return of three heroes to the scene of the fire.
Winecoff fire firefighters R.B. Sprayberry, Rick Roberts and James Smith were the honored by Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran at a special luncheon hosted by Winecoff Fire co-authors Sam Heys and Allen B. Goodwin at the Ellis Hotel.
Margaret Foster and daughter Connie Foster Broom greet Rick Roberts, the firefighter who in 1946 rescued them by ladder from their fifth floor room. Photo by Donna Bowman
The three former Atlanta firefighters signed autographs for an impressive turnout of well wishers and gave interviews to local media outlets.
The fourth living Winecoff firefighter was unable to attend for health reasons. Raymond McGill, 94, explained, "I'm in no shape to go up there." He sent his best wishes.
Winecoff Fire reader R. Michael Murphy has shared with Winecoff.Org a poem his grandmother wrote after the loss of her fourteen year old daughter, Mary Lou Murphy, in the 1946 Winecoff Hotel fire. The poem offers a rare glimpse into a mother's heart. Pearl Murphy tells her daughter's life story but writes in the first person. Click here.
A few hours before the Winecoff Hotel burned, a small group of teens peered into the hotel's bar, certain they'd be unwelcome. They were drawn by the sound of Ward Duval at the piano entertaining hotel guests.
The bar's manager, Andy Marinos, conferred with them, then asked Duval if the teens could join him to sing a few songs. Duval consented and together they sang It'sOnly Make Believe and Showboat.
They were due for roll-call the next morning in the state capital because they were Youth Assembly delegates visiting from smaller Georgia towns. Surely their exciting Friday night in the big city was enhanced by the impromptu performance.
It's unclear if Bainbridge, Ga. delegate, Maxine Willis, was among the teens but her older sister Sara thinks her sister wouldn't have shied away from a chance to sing.
Now, vintage vocal recordings of Winecoff fire victim Maxine Willis have surfaced. They were recorded in the fall of 1946.
Listen to a brief excerpt and read her full biography at Winecoff in Depth.
Prior to the 1946 Winecoff Hotel fire this Mason & Hamlin grand piano was used to entertain guests in the hotel. It was badly damaged in the fire but luckily was salvaged a few days later by Thomas Lester Rainwater Sr. He paid an insurance appraiser $15 for it.
Rainwater worked for the Cable Piano Company which, ironically, had been the scene of another famous Atlanta fire. He restored the piano in his home. Joe Durden, another Cable employee, refinished it. It took two years to complete the work.
In 1949 Rainwater donated the piano to the Pine Lake Baptist Church in Stone Mountain, Georgia. It's been in use there ever since. "My father-in-law worked real hard getting that piano ready and he was real proud to be able to give it to the church," said daughter-in law Dot Rainwater.
Here's a four minute video of Winecoff fire researcher Chet Wallace playing the piano and speaking with church member Jim Davenport, who spearheaded the piano's second restoration in 1992.
Pictured here shortly before the Winecoff Hotel fire are Reid and Cary Horne. Together they ran a grocery business in Cordele, Georgia. They were frequent visitors to Atlanta. Young and full of life, they enjoyed the excitement of "the big city". This photo shows them walking in front of Davison-Paxon's Department Store, a stone's throw from The Winecoff Hotel and on the same side of Peachtree St. They were in the hotel on December 7, 1946 - room 1606 - on the Peachtree St. side when the fire began. Their struggle to survive included several acts of high drama acrobatics on the outside of the hotel - fifteen stories up. They were forced by smoke to leave through the window of room 1606, down to 1506, then to make a terrifying, sidestepping journey along a tiny ledge at the fifteenth floor and eventually up by sheet rope to room 1612. From there the Hornes' survival strategy had to be revised several times, risks re-assessed. New escape plans were implemented and abandoned as other hotel guests perished all around them.
The Hornes' harrowing story is told beginning on page 97 of The Winecoff Fire.
Listen to a brief segment of the authors' original 1986 interview with Reid and Cary Horne. Reid tells about the unusual thing he did, standing at the window of room 1612, when all hope for survival seemed lost.
Nell McDuffie came to work at the Winecoff Hotel in 1928. She was a capable secretary to several general managers during the next eighteen years. She knew the hotel's operation top to bottom. "I was sort of the assistant manager and just general flunky really," she said. During World War II she moved into the hotel. She survived the Winecoff fire when Atlanta firefighters rescued her by ladder from the window of room 1120, across the ten foot alleyway and into the Mortgage Guarantee building. She was still there when Ed Kiker Williams fell - unconscious - from room 1520 and landed miraculously on the ladder still stretched across the alley - a three story plunge. He was injured but survived. McDuffie later recovered the Gideons bible from her room and claimed it as her own with an inscription. She also typed out some of her special memories of her years at the hotel. Nell McDuffie moved to Raleigh, NC. following the fire but eventually returned to Atlanta.
Listen to a three minute excerpt from The Winecoff Fire authors' 1987 interview with Nell McDuffie. She is asked about co-lessor Robert O'Connell and a disturbance in the hotel's bar on Thursday night December 5th, 1946.
Winecoff Fire reader Rusty Tanton has discovered that his own great aunt played an important role in the emergency response to the Winecoff Hotel fire. Betty Jane Tarrant was a night supervisor at Atlanta's Grady Hospital when the alert was sounded, "be prepared - the Winecoff Hotel is on fire." She tells her story to Rusty in this explicit five minute video interview. Click here for the interview.
Ed Kiker Williams, 15, was excited about going to Atlanta. When he left Cordele, Ga. that Friday he was behind the wheel of his aunt's big blue Buick. His mom, aunt, little sister and three cousins were all on board. The weekend in Atlanta was a shining star ahead for each of them. His sister Clair had her heart set on seeing the Disney film, Song of the South. The ladies were going to Christmas shop for special gifts unavailable in Cordele. Ed was content just to be the driver. The group took two rooms in the Winecoff Hotel, 1530 for his aunt and cousins, 1520 for him, his mom and little sister. At 3:42 am Saturday morning life began to change for Ed Kiker Williams. The story of his struggle to live and his miraculous survival is told in Chapter 4 of The Winecoff Fire: The Untold Story of America's Deadliest Hotel Fire.
Hear a six minute segment of the authors' original 1986 interview with Mr. Williams.
The Winecoff Hotel building has at last been returned to its original purpose. It is once again a first class downtown Atlanta hotel: The Ellis on Peachtree. The lobby and the rest of the structure have been completely refurbished.
Led by Atlanta's mayor Shirley Franklin - and her fire chief - a ribbon cutting ceremony was held Wednesday October 17. On the mezzanine level invited guests mingled and enjoyed refreshments. Susan Griffin, who masterminded the redevelopment effort, moved among them. She had promised eighteen months earlier that she would remodel the building and she delivered.
Amid the crowd, conversations were occasionally punctuated by talk of the Winecoff fire. Susan Griffin doesn't shy away from the subject. Like many other builders, she learns from it.
Newspaper writers and broadcast reporters came to observe. For Winecoff Fire co-author Sam Heys it was another amazing chapter in his study of the fire. He never really expected to see the building revived. But there it was... and is.
The evening air, still holding a summer warmth, drifted in through open doors that lead to a new terrace. It overlooks Peachtree Street, just like the old one did in 1946.
A modern new sign now adorns the northeast corner of the building, where the Winecoff sign once was, and where Gladys Mitchell's fall from a sheet rope was broken by a guy wire that held it.
Upstairs, the hotel's rooms are now beautifully appointed. Two years ago room 1612 was completely trashed. Now it's called Room 1603 and it's nicer than it ever was. It's also where Gladys Mitchell began her descent and where others, who were more patient, were rescued.
"I'll believe it when I see it," voices murmured when Susan Griffin and Jay Furman first stepped onto the property eighteen months ago to announce their plan to re-develop the Winecoff Hotel building. Now, we've seen it. It took 27 million dollars and a lot of hard labor but it's happened. Amazing. It will now serve the traveling public but also sustain the memory of the fire's victims and the fire safety codes they inspired.
On Sunday, December 3, 2006 the Atlanta Fire Department hosted a special ceremony and reception honoring: firefighters, survivors, victims’ families & eyewitnesses of the 1946 Winecoff fire The event was held at The Spotted Dog Tavern (formerly Fire Station #11) 30 North Avenue Atlanta, GA. Fire Station #11 was the home of some of the first responders to the Winecoff fire. The City of Atlanta Fire Department's special remembrance marking the milestone 60th anniversary included a memorable ceremony, as well as a book signing of The Winecoff Fire: The Untold Story of America’s Deadliest Hotel Fire by Sam Heys and Allen B. Goodwin. Guests, including some of the fire's survivors and eyewitnesses, took the opportunity to share stories and remembrances. There was also an update about the current renovation of the hotel. The program took place in the upstairs meeting room.
Hear WSB Radio's Sandra Parrish's award winning report on this moving event.
Scores Attend Ellis Hotel Groundbreaking, Praise Redevelopment Plan
"I'll believe it when I see it!"
That has been my answer to any and all redevelopment plans put forward over the years to restore the Winecoff Hotel. After all, there have been so many of them and yet the strategically placed building just sits and sits. Generation after generation of pigeons have roosted inside the structure flitting in and out through broken windows. Neglected for so long, the building that towers fifteen stories above the highest piece of ground in downtown Atlanta, has become virtually invisible to most Atlantans. Amazing!
Now comes the latest effort to revive the building. The new developers have at least shown that they can put on a show. The 10 am "groundbreaking" ceremony held April 21st offered new hope that the old hotel will again be put to good use. Held beneath a portable white tent on the tiny space owned by MARTA next to the building, speaker after speaker extolled the virtues of the new plan. It all sounded surprisingly credible.
Atlanta firefighters guarded the event as if to silently give their blessing to the new plan. Each one of them knows well the story of what happened there in 1946 and in turn they looked at the building and paused, no doubt thinking, "it could have been me, it could still happen to me."
TV reporters scrambled to get a quick education about the history of the building and the new plan for their live shots at noon. Like so many, they had driven by the building dozens of times and hardly noticed it. Only WSB radio reporter Sandra Parrish had come prepared.
A troop of loud protesters could be overheard through parts of the ceremony chanting, "Stop mortgage fraud." They had come at the behest of Courtney Dillard, the last in a long string of would-be redevelopers who have seen their dreams dashed, their money vanish.
The sun shown brightly and when the speakers had had their say the crowd was invited inside to the area that was once the hotel's lobby. There the "groundbreaking" took place. Actually, a dozen or so silver hammers were handed out to those who are involved with the new plan and on the count of three they all took a few smacks at a piece of dry wall, knocked a few holes in it then left it standing and damaged like the rest of the hotel.
When the crowd had drifted away and the TV reporters moved across Peachtree St. so their cameras could glimpse the enormous "invisible" structure, down the stairs, a little short of breath, came a real life connection to The Winecoff fire: Janet Cox - daughter of survivor Dorothy Moen Cox. I looked at her and in an instant I knew where she had been, room 730.
"Did you visit Mama's room?" I asked. "I saw Mama's room," she replied.
We all live for days worth remembering. Long after everyone at the ceremony has forgotten it. Whether the new plan succeeds or fails the day's most poignant and memorable moment will be, of course, the one attached to the Winecoff fire.
