Poughkeepsie Hotels Three Times Jinxed

Morgan House, Main Street, Poughkeepsie NY, Dutchess County 1910

A location in Poughkeepsie, NY, is a jinx for any hotels that rest upon it. Over the years, three hotels have occupied the northwest corner of Main and Catharine Streets, and all three have eventually burned down.

The first hotel to fall victim to the jinx was the Eastern Hotel. Theodorus Gregory originally ran a tavern on the ground floor of the building at 341 Main Street and eventually purchased the building & hotel in 1841. Shortly after the hotel was consumed by fire, Gregory constructed a new hotel named the Gregory House. The Gregory House had an interesting thing going on. It was a temperance hotel (no booze allowed) and the first in the City of Poughkeepsie. I’m surprised that he was willing to lose the alcohol revenue, but he was.

In 1865, Gregory sold the hotel to George Morgan, who made his fortune in the charcoal business in northern Dutchess County. He renamed the hotel the Morgan House. Morgan was a popular fellow who became Mayor of Poughkeepsie and a State Senator. In 1912, Morgan sold the hotel, which was owned by a series of people until 1917, when a fire in the basement spread to the rest of the structure and consumed it. The fire spread to nearby structures and eventually required all available fire personnel in the City of Poughkeepsie to put it out. The estimated damages from the fire were around a quarter million dollars. An immense amount of money back then.

eal-world jinx?