Port-O-Prem, Haiti (AP)-ever-the famous Hotil Olofson Grand Hittan, a beloved Ginger House of Ginger, who inspired books hosted parties to dawn and attracted visitors from Mick Jagger to Haitian’s presidents, was burned by bands last weekend.
Hundreds of Haitians and foreigners mourned for the news as they spread to social media, with the hotel manager confirmed the fire in a brief comment on X. Although the gang’s violence forced the hotel in the capital of Haiti, the Port Proons, to close in recent years.
“This has generated so much culture and expression,” says Riva Pril, a Haitian-American singer who has lived in the hotel for 5 to 15 years. Speaking on the phone, Précil reminded herself how she learned to swim, dance and sing at Oloffson.
The attack on the hotel community began at the end of Saturday, according to James Jean-Louis, who lives over Olofson. He told the Associated Press on the phone on Sunday that he was watching the flames, as he and other residents were expelled while police and gangs exchange heavy firing.
Currently, journalists cannot visit the hotel’s place in the capital, Port-O-Pression and check the damage because the gangs control the area that remains inaccessible. Patrick Durandis, Director of the Institute for the Protection of National Heritage, also confirmed the fire in a message to the ap.
Among the complaints of the fire was Michael Daibert, author of “The Last Testament Notes: The Struggle for Haiti” and “Haiti will not die: a recent history.”
He landed in Miami on Sunday just to open his phone and see the noise of messages from friends in Haiti.
“When you went to Olofson, you really felt that you were related to Haiti’s political and cultural history,” he said. “You went to Haiti and have never been the same. And Olofson really caught him.”
“This is our home”
The hotel attracted artists, intellectuals and politicians from Haiti and beyond, including Jacqueline Onassis and Tennessee Williams. He also survived the coup, dictatorships and the devastating earthquake in 2010.
Isabel Morse, the daughter of Richard Morse, who became the hotel manager several decades ago, said he liked to have writers, photographers and other Oloffson artists.
“His sense of community was very important to him,” she said in a phone interview on Monday, describing the hotel as “all her life.”
“For him, it was freedom where people in all spheres of life can enter and share this space,” she said.
Richard Morse did not return a message looking for a comment. The famous group, which he founded, Ram, published on the X beginning of Monday that the hotel was “burned to the ground”.
His daughter told him that her parents hoped to open Olofson again.
“It’s not just a business, it’s our home. We’re raised there,” she said. “It was more about moving home rather than re -opening the business.”
Haiti’s heritage in flames
Olofson served as a presidential summer palace in the early 1900s, and then became a hospital for the US Naval Infantry, before the Swedish captain of the sea made him a hotel in the 30s.
He also serves as an inspiration for the fictional Trianon Hotel in Graham Green’s 1966 novel The Comedians, placed in Haiti under the brutal dictatorship of Francois Duwalier, best known as Papa Doc.
In real life, tourism decreases under the Duwariers and the hotel has become a recreation for assistants to help and foreign correspondents.
In the late 80’s, Richard Morse became the hotel manager. His band Ram plays music on Haitian Roots on Thursday night, which became legendary, as well as the Day of Dead Celebrations, known as Fèt Gede, who attracted Vodou practitioners.
“It was a ship for so many people to gather and freely express themselves,” Précil recalls. “RAM really created this culture and this environment, made a space that welcomes people from all types of denominations and sexual preferences.”
Olofson was nestled in the high quality mischief community in the southeast corner of the country’s capital. It was surrounded by lush gardens and was often described as a mythical place known for its complex grille, towers and spies and creaking parquet floors that characterize the endangered homes of Haiti’s ginger.
Advertising from the 1940s of the Haiti Tourism Department says that the hotel is located “in the largest part of the city” and notes that there is spoken English, French, German and Spanish.
The hotel has closed in recent years, when gangs began to invade and seize control of once peaceful communities.
“Many of Haiti’s architectural heritage rises at flames the moment when the so -called leaders stand with their hands in their pockets,” Dabert said. “The destruction of Olofson is symbolic of the destruction of the history and culture of Haiti, which we have been watching over the last few years.”
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San Juan country, Puerto Rico.