PORT-AU-PRINCEHThis past weekend, gangs destroyed the once-famous Grand Hotel Oloffson, a cherished Gothic gingerbread house that served as the inspiration for books, held parties until morning, and welcomed guests ranging from Mick Jagger to Haitian presidents.
As the story went viral on social media, hundreds of Haitians and visitors expressed their sorrow. The hotel management confirmed the fire in a quick message on X on Monday. The hotel in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti, had been forced to close in recent years due to gang violence, but many had hoped it would reopen.
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According to Haitian-American singer Riva Pr cil, who resided at the hotel from the age of five to fifteen, it gave rise to a great deal of culture and expression. Prcil remembered over the phone how she learnt to sing, dance, and swim at the Oloffson.
According to James Jean-Louis, who lives above the Oloffson, the attack on the neighborhood where the hotel was situated started late Saturday. As he and other neighbors were being driven out while police and gangs engaged in a fierce gunfight, he told The Associated Press on the phone Sunday that he saw the flames.
Because gangs dominate the area, which is still inaccessible, journalists are now unable to visit the hotel site in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and confirm the damage. In a statement to the AP, Patrick Durandis, director of the Institute for Safeguarding National Heritage, also verified the fire.
Michael Deibert, author of Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History and Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti, was one among those who bemoaned the fire.
When he opened his phone after arriving in Miami on Sunday, he saw a barrage of texts from pals in Haiti.
He claimed that visiting the Oloffson gave visitors a genuine sense of connection to Haiti’s political and cultural past. After seeing Haiti, you changed completely. And that was perfectly captured by the Oloffson.
It’s our house.
Politicians, philosophers, and artists from Haiti and beyond, such as Tennessee Williams and Jacqueline Onassis, were drawn to the hotel. Additionally, it withstood dictatorships, coups, and the terrible 2010 earthquake.
Richard Morse, who became the hotel’s manager a few decades ago, adored having writers, photographers, and other artists at the Oloffson, according to Isabelle Morse, his daughter.
In a phone conversation on Monday, she described the hotel as his entire existence and added that he placed a great deal of importance on his feeling of community.
He saw it as a place of freedom where individuals from different backgrounds might enter and occupy that area,” she said.
A mail asking for comment from Richard Morse was not answered. Early on Monday, RAM, the well-known band he created, announced on X that the hotel had burned down.
Her parents had wanted to reopen the Oloffson, according to his daughter.
It’s our home as well as our place of business. She claimed that’s where we grew up. It was less about rebuilding the business and more about returning home.
Haiti’s cultural legacy on fire
Before being turned into a hotel by a Swedish sea captain in the 1930s, the Oloffson was used as a presidential vacation home in the early 1900s and later as a hospital for the U.S. Marine Corps.
In Graham Greene’s 1966 book The Comedians, which is set in Haiti during the cruel regime of Francois Duvalier, better known as Papa Doc, it also provided inspiration for the fictional Hotel Trianon.
In reality, under the Duvaliers, tourism declined, and the hotel served as a haven for foreign journalists and relief workers.
Richard Morse took over as hotel manager in the late 1980s. Both the Day of the Dead celebrations, known as F t Gede, which attracted Vodou practitioners, and the Thursday nights when his band, RAM, performed Haitian roots music became legendary.
Pr cil noted that it served as a platform for a large number of people to come together and freely express themselves. RAM truly established that culture and atmosphere, creating a place that accepted individuals of various sexual orientations and denominations.
The Oloffson was located in the southeast corner of the nation’s capital, in the posh neighborhood of Pacot. Known for its elaborate latticework, turrets, and spires, as well as the creaking parquet flooring that define Haiti’s endangered gingerbread mansions, it was encircled by lush gardens and frequently referred to as a mystical location.
Haiti’s tourism authority advertised in the 1940s that the hotel was located in the coolest part of the town and that people there spoke Spanish, French, German, and English.
As gangs started raiding and taking over once-calm communities, the hotel closed in recent years.
According to Deibert, many pieces of Haiti’s architectural legacy are currently on fire as so-called leaders watch helplessly. The Oloffson’s devastation is a metaphor for the history and culture of Haiti that we have been witnessing over the past few years.
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From San Juan, Puerto Rico, Coto reported.
