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Blaze leveled Antlers, despite heroism
Editor's note: Colorado Springs' first luxury hotel -- the Antlers -- opened June 1, 1883. The name came from owner William Jackson Palmer, who used his collection of deer and elk antlers at the hotel as hat racks. Standing 101 feet high and equipped with an elevator, Turkish bath and billiard rooms, the Antlers dominated the city skyline until it caught fire in 1898. Despite the best efforts of Springs residents -- including the Colorado College football team, which abandoned a game in mid-play to help fight the fire -- the hotel burned to the ground. The following account in the Oct. 2, 1898, Gazette appeared under the headlines, ``Great Destruction Wrought by Wind and Flames Yesterday Afternoon'' and ``The Entire City Was Threatened.''
The report:
``An area three blocks long by two blocks wide, extending northeast from the Rio Grande freight depot to Pike's Peak avenue, was destroyed by fire yesterday afternoon. For three hours, from 3 o'clock until 6, a huge mass of flames swept over the doomed section, obliterating nearly half a hundred small frame structures south of Huerfano street in the vicinity of the Gulf depot, spreading to the yards of the Newton Lumber company, and wiping them out of existence, and finally engulfing the Antlers hotel, leaving it a mass of charred and smoking ruins. Fanned by a heavy wind that blew at the rate of 47 miles an hour, the sea of flame rushed on and on like a huge tidal wave, sweeping everything before it and leaving in its path a glowing mass of red-hot ashes. It was nearly three-quarters of an hour before the whole city became alarmed and realized the gravity of the situation. Vehicles of every description, loaded with furniture, dashed toward the north and safety. By 5 o'clock the city was in a state of the wildest excitement, and this was augmented by the announcement that the flames had spread to the residence section of the north end. From absolutely reliable sources it is learned that the fire originated in a pile of rubbish under the south platform of the Rio Grande freight depot, and in five minutes the entire depot was enveloped in flames. All efforts were concentrated on the saving of the Antlers hotel. Thousands of people thronged the streets, watching with breathless interest the heroic battle that was being waged against the fire. Suddenly from a thousand throats the cry went up: `The Antlers is on fire!' Swiftly and mercilessly the red tongues lapped up the splendid building, until with one grand burst they mounted to the roof, wrapped themselves around the building -- and the last act in the lurid tragedy of the fire was begun.''