Ellis Hotel facts for kids
| The Ellis Hotel | |
Quick facts for kids  Ellis Hotel in 2020 |
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| Hotel facts and statistics | |
|---|---|
| Location | 176 Peachtree Street NW, Atlanta |
| Opening date | 1913 |
| Architect | William Lee Stoddart |
| Management | Colwen Hotels |
| No. of rooms | 127 |
| No. of floors | 15 |
The Ellis Hotel is a famous building in downtown Atlanta, Georgia, USA. It was once known as the Winecoff Hotel. This 15-story building was designed by William Lee Stoddart and first opened its doors in 1913.
The hotel is located right next to 200 Peachtree, which used to be a big department store called Davison's. The Ellis Hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 31, 2009. It is most famous for a terrible fire that happened there on December 7, 1946. This fire caused the deaths of 119 people.
The Big Fire of 1946
The Ellis Hotel, when it was called The Winecoff, had the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history. This sad event happened on December 7, 1946, and 119 people lost their lives. Because of this fire, many important changes were made to building codes across the country. These new rules made buildings much safer.
Many different people were staying at the hotel that night. Some were teenagers attending a special conference for young leaders. Others were Christmas shoppers or people visiting Atlanta to see the movie Song of the South.
A 24-year-old student named Arnold Hardy was at Georgia Tech at the time. He took a picture of a woman jumping from the 11th floor during the fire. This powerful photo helped him become the first non-professional photographer to win a Pulitzer Prize for photography. The woman in the picture, Daisy B. McCumber, survived the jump but had serious injuries. She continued to work until she retired.
New Beginnings for the Hotel
After the fire, the hotel was closed for a few years. In April 1951, it reopened with a new name: the Peachtree Hotel on Peachtree. This time, it had important safety features like fire alarms and automatic sprinkler systems.
Later, in 1967, the hotel was given to the Georgia Baptist Convention to be used as housing for older people. Over the years, it was sold several times to different groups who wanted to fix it up.
During the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, the hotel's empty lobby was used as a souvenir shop.
After being empty for more than 20 years, a big project to fix up the hotel started in April 2006. This project cost $23 million. The building was completely redone and became a fancy, smaller hotel called the Ellis Hotel. It was named after Ellis Street, which runs along one side of the building. The hotel officially reopened on October 1, 2007.
Images for kids
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Ellis Hotel in 2020
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Ellis Hotel
See also
In Spanish: Hotel Ellis para niños
