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FLAGPOLE
July 14. 1993
Special Correspondent for the Flagpole.
William
There is truth in all things If you sift hard enough, you wiM find it. Tonight
I was accosted by a person vrtx) seems used to sleeping out-of-boors, and
he said to me: "You genin' fat and old and white-headed Y* oughter be findin'
somethin' better to do wif yo'sel then what y* doin'." What I was doing was
bringing someone some books, but I have taken the advice of this street sage
and prodded myself into action Herewith I write this column; it is far more a
reflection of what I can do than is bringing someone a box of books, even if
book-bringing is done partly from the heart and partly for the money, if on a
one-to-one basis... and column-writing is done mostly from the heart and
orXy-a-small-partly for the money, but is geared to induce at least cursory
attention from far more than one of you.
Truth in ail things, if you sift hard enough to get back at one man whom the arsonist felt
Surely most of you have walked down had "ratted’on a friend of his during a poker
Peachtree Street in Atlanta; many of you game heia there earlier in the evening,
have navigated the part between Five Points He slothed
and Macy 's. In that stretch, you walked past, down the
on the west side of the street, a nondescript and lit a match hop-
building of 14 stories or so that could pass mg to kill the
for an urban high-rise for the elderly, which mtheend»119o0OP e
tst Tower "That was it." His name. I think I
remember noticing, was H. A. Galloway
And then he started crying. “I was on duty
that night" he remembered, regaining his
composure "That's the har
worked People were |U "
floors, there wasn't nothi
couple or three who j
'em didn't. I still remem 1
sniffed, blew his nose, and
remember some crossed the al
plank to the building next door brawled
across 10 or so floors up, window to win
dow... but they all survived Governor Gnffm's
daughter burnt up: She was in town for a
convention.
at one recent point in its life it has beerf?
Baptist Tower The upper floors are vacant
now; the role that 176. Peachtree Street, NW. •
will act out in its next incarnation is in the
process of being decided Being inanimate,
the structure can only sit and wait be* if it
possessed the ability to talk, what a story it
could tell... or perhaps the word is scream.
For Baptist Tower, you see, represents a
refurbishment of something that was there
before: The Winecoff Hotel. The Winecc
name still figures in real estate around At
lanta, even if the bulk of people bearing that
name live in towns in North Carolina with
names like Ahoskie. Auiander and Elizabeth
City It was the bright lights of Atlanta, the
Gate City Of The South, that brought A. F.
Winecoff Sr. to town from Carol i na: ultimately
he constructed a hotel fiat was deemed
■fireproof." T ruth is there if you sift words are
often cheap, and A. F. Winecoff was forced
to eat his: he and Ns wiedied in their sleep
of smoke inhalation m their penthouse suite
in afire spread by fre|h paint on the walls of
’the hotel them nevef bum"
E/irfy m the morning of December 7,
1946, only i *p# hours shy of the fifth anni
versary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the
Winecoff caught fire It was a torch job done
119pe|p
died in the fire which
still stands a s the worst
hotel fire m the nation's
history and only the
second worst in the
work!
Truth is that I'd
wanted to write a book
about the fire myself, but
never got around to it
When I was 11 or 12. my
folks were shopping at
Rich's Downtown I
strolled away, street
smart enough for that
time, and walked up to
Davison's (now Macy's),
then turned around to
come back Standing on
the corner of Peachtree
and Cain (now International
Blvd.) Streets was an older
policeman, a veteran of the
force. I walked up to him
and asked him. I knew he'd
know. "Where aJong here was the Winecoff
Hotel?" I pondered, surely an unexpected
question to come from someone so young
"It was right over there." he pointed to Bap-
folks?" "They’re down at Rich’s. I guess I
better get on back: They’ll wonder what kept
me * "Do you know how to go?" he asked.
Obviously ready to walk me back the entire
be "Sure. I just turn down
ing and cross
> we red.
I what
Id the
I haven't
forgotten, buT""SB^^^^^HHVne to the
punch: in the Sur^Q^^er on June 20,
Celestine Sibley reviewed The Winecoff Fire
The Untold Story Of Amenca's Deadliest
Hotel Fire by Sam Heys and
Allen B Goodwin The pub
lisher is Longstreet. it's
$19 95 Haven’t seen a
copy of it yet, but I’ll go
look for it. Maybe some
day I can afford an extra
Then I'll look up Mr Gallo
way maybe he’s in retire
ment in Hampton or Lo
cust Grove or Ellenwood
tending to his garden and
his great-grandchildren
He of all people needs to
know that someone out
there remembers
Okay, someone
wrote this book, and I’m
glad it needed to be
done, and done right
Now maybe I’ll crank
the microfilm of the old
Atlanta Georgian to
see what I can find out
about the May 16,
1938, fire at the Ter
minal Hotel in Atlanta
which killed 35
people Finding eye
witnesses to that one from the fire and
What ever made you want police ranks grows harder every day . Maybe
to ask that?" "Well, sir, maybe when I grow I should scrape together enough money for
up I can wnte a book about it Did they ever a villa in Ellenwood and my own garden and
find out who did itT "Heard tell they did, but get busy working toward establishing my
he died in pnson: He was in for something own family, what say?(30.)
else. You're a smart little boy; where are your • i«« o*m c««o*>
_ T he
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