Mar 15, 2021
Yes, we’ve chronicled hotel fires before, such as Fonda’s Hotel Roy in 1909, Gloversville’s Alvord House in 1898 and Keystone Hotel, also in 1909. Lives were lost in all three fires, but as time advanced, municipal fire departments acquired better fire-fighting equipment and training, so the potential for successfully saving lives increased. Such was so with Gloversville’s last large hotel fire at the Hotel Windsor, occurring in frigid temperatures just after midnight eighty-seven years ago on Friday, March 23, 1934.
Our Morning Herald reported, “The lives of fifty guests and several employees of the Hotel Windsor were imperiled early today when fire swept through the rear of the four-story building, causing $20,000.00 worth of damage. Six persons were carried down ladders by firemen. Several more were overcome by dense smoke filling the hotel, but all were speedily revived after being carried from the building. Others made their own way to the street.”