Gangs in Haiti burn beloved Gothic gingerbread hotel that rose to international fame
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 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.'
The hotel attracted artists, intellectuals and politicians from Haiti and beyond, including former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and playwright 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.'
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 voodoo 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 [as] 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.'
Coto and Sanon write for the Associated Press. Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.
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Fox Sports
24 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
Black Sox, Ohtani's interpreter and more: A look at prominent sports betting scandals
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An NCAA investigation found several violations, which led to the cancellation of Kentucky's 1952-53 season. — In 1980, two Italian soccer teams were relegated and five others penalized for their involvement in a match-fixing scandal that was dubbed 'Totonero.' Most notably, Paolo Rossi was banned for two years for his involvement while playing for Perugia. — In 1981, former Boston College basketball player Rick Kuhn and four others, including New York mobster Jimmy Burke, were convicted of conspiring to fix basketball games in the 1978-79 season. — In 1985, Tulane suspended its basketball program in the wake of point-shaving and other allegations. The school resumed basketball for the 1989-90 season. — In 1989, Pete Rose agreed to a lifetime ban after an investigation for MLB by lawyer John Dowd found Rose placed numerous bets on the Cincinnati Reds to win from 1985-87 while playing for and managing the team. 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Italian player Tonali was banned for 10 months last year for betting on teams he played for. -- In October 2023, the NHL issued a 41-game suspension to Ottawa Senators forward Shane Pinto for sports gambling. The NHL would only say there was no evidence of Pinto betting on hockey. Pinto declined to reveal any details upon rejoining the Senators in January. — In March 2024, the Los Angeles Dodgers fired Ippei Mizuhara, the interpreter and close friend of newly acquired two-way star Shohei Ohtani following reports regarding his ties to an illegal bookmaker. Three months later, Mizuhara pled guilty in federal court to bank and tax fraud for stealing nearly $17 million from Ohtani's bank account. He spent the money to cover his growing gambling bets and debts with an illegal bookmaker, plus $325,000 worth of baseball cards and his own medical bills. Mizuhara capitalized on the language barrier to keep Ohtani's financial advisers from understanding their client, and at times, Mizuhara even impersonated the player to the bank to prolong the fraud. — In April 2024, Toronto Raptors forward Jontay Porter was banned for life from the NBA after a league probe found he disclosed confidential information to sports bettors and wagered on games, even betting on the Raptors to lose. In making the announcement, Commissioner Adam Silver called Porter's actions 'blatant.' The investigation started once the league learned from 'licensed sports betting operators and an organization that monitors legal betting markets' about unusual gambling patterns surrounding Porter's performance in a game on March 20 against Sacramento. The league determined that Porter gave a bettor information about his own health status prior to that game and said that another individual — known to be an NBA bettor — placed an $80,000 bet that Porter would not hit the numbers set for him in parlays through an online sports book. That bet would have won $1.1 million. — In June 2024, San Diego Padres infielder Tucupita Marcano was banned for life by MLB for betting on baseball. MLB said Marcano placed 387 baseball bets totaling more than $150,000 with a legal sportsbook in 2022 and 2023. The 24-year-old Venezuelan with 149 games of major league experience became the first active player in a century banned for life because of gambling. Oakland Athletics pitcher Michael Kelly was also suspended for one year for betting on baseball while in the minor leagues, and three minor leaguers also were banned for one year for betting on big league games: pitchers Jay Groome of San Diego and Andrew Saalfrank of Arizona, and infielder Jose Rodriguez of Philadelphia. Each of those four players wagered under $1,000. Saalfrank and Rodríguez played previously in the majors. — In February 2025, umpire Pat Hoberg was fired by MLB for sharing his legal sports gambling accounts with a friend who bet on baseball games and for intentionally deleting electronic messages pertinent to the league's investigation. While MLB said the probe did not uncover evidence Hoberg personally bet on baseball or manipulated games, MLB senior vice president of on-field operations Michael Hill recommended on May 24, 2024 that Hoberg be fired. Commissioner Rob Manfred he upheld Hill's decision. 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