Gangs in Haiti burn beloved Gothic gingerbread hotel that rose to international fame

Main entry to the Hotel Oloffson in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 13, 2004. It built as a private residence by Simon Sam in about 1886. (Don Bartletti/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Haiti’s once illustrious Grand Hôtel Oloffson, a beloved Gothic gingerbread home that inspired books, hosted parties until dawn and attracted visitors from Mick Jagger to Haitian presidents, was burned down by gangs this past weekend.

Hundreds of Haitians and foreigners mourned the news as it spread across social media, with the hotel manager on Monday confirming the fire in a brief comment on X. Even though gang violence had forced the hotel in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, to close in recent years, many had hoped it would reopen.

“It birthed so much culture and expression,” said Riva Précil, a Haitian-American singer who lived in the hotel from age 5 to 15. Speaking over the phone, Précil recalled how she learned to swim, dance and sing at the Oloffson.

The attack on the community where the hotel was located began late Saturday, according to James Jean-Louis, who lives above the Oloffson. He told The Associated Press over the phone on Sunday that he observed the flames as he and other residents were chased out while police and gangs exchanged heavy gunfire.

Journalists are currently unable to visit the site of the hotel in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and verify the damage because gangs control the area, which remains inaccessible. Patrick Durandis, director of the Institute for Safeguarding National Heritage, also confirmed the fire in a message to the AP.

Among those lamenting the fire was Michael Deibert, author of “Notes From the Last Testament: The Struggle for Haiti,” and “Haiti Will Not Perish: A Recent History.”

He landed in Miami on Sunday only to open his phone and see a flurry of messages from friends in Haiti.

“When you went to the Oloffson, you really felt you were being connected with Haiti’s political and cultural history,” he said. “You went to Haiti and were never the same. And the Oloffson really captured that.”

‘It’s our home’

The hotel attracted artists, intellectuals and politicians from Haiti and beyond, including Jacqueline Onassis and Tennessee Williams. It also survived coups, dictatorships and the devastating 2010 earthquake.

Isabelle Morse, daughter of Richard Morse, who became the hotel’s manager several decades ago, said he loved having writers, photographers and other artists at the Oloffson.

“His sense of community was very important to him,” she said in a phone interview Monday, describing the hotel as “his whole life.”

“For him, it represented freedom, where people from all walks of life could come in and share that space,” she said.

Richard Morse did not return a message seeking comment. The renowned band he founded, RAM, posted on X early Monday that the hotel had “burned to the ground.”

His daughter said her parents had hoped to reopen the Oloffson.

“It’s not only a business, it’s our home. We were raised there,” she said. “It was more about moving back home rather than reopening the business.”

Haiti’s heritage up in flames

The Oloffson served as a presidential summer palace in the early 1900s and then became a U.S. Marine Corps Hospital before a Swedish sea captain converted it into a hotel in the 1930s.

It also served as inspiration for the fictional Hotel Trianon in Graham Greene’s 1966 novel “The Comedians,” set in Haiti under the brutal dictatorship of Francois Duvalier, best known as “Papa Doc.”

In real life, tourism dwindled under the Duvaliers, and the hotel became a respite for aid workers and foreign correspondents.

In the late 1980s, Richard Morse became the hotel’s manager. His band, RAM, played Haitian roots music on Thursday nights that became legendary, as were the Day of the Dead celebrations known as Fèt Gede that drew in Vodou practitioners.

“It was a vessel for so many people to gather and freely express themselves,” Précil recalled. “RAM really created that culture and that environment, made it a space that welcomed people from all types of denominations and sexual preferences.”

The Oloffson was nestled in the upscale community of Pacot in the southeast corner of the country’s capital. It was surrounded by lush gardens and often described as a mythical place, renowned for its intricate latticework, turrets and spires and creaking parquet floors that characterize Haiti’s endangered gingerbread homes.

A 1940s advertisement by Haiti’s tourism department said that the hotel was situated “in the coolest section of the town” and noted that English, French, German and Spanish were spoken there.

The hotel closed in recent years as gangs began raiding and seizing control of once peaceful communities.

“A lot of Haiti’s architectural heritage is going up in flames right now with so-called leaders stand by with their hands in their pockets,” Deibert said. ”The destruction of the Oloffson is symbolic of the destruction of Haiti’s history and culture that we’ve been watching over the last several years.”

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Dánica Coto And Evens Sanon, The Associated Press

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.