Morgan House, Main Street, Poughkeepsie, NY, Dutchess County 1910
A location in Poughkeepsie, NY, is a jinx for any hotel that rests 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 occurrence. 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 figure who served as the Mayor of Poughkeepsie and a State Senator. In 1912, Morgan sold the hotel, which had been owned by a series of individuals 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 extinguish it. The estimated damages from the fire were approximately $250,000. An immense amount of money back then.
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Remaining 3 Floors
Okay, that’s two up and two down so far. The remains of the Morgan House were shortly demolished, and a new five-story structure was built at the exact location. The Windsor Hotel was scorch-free until 1943, when the top two floors burned down.
Today, the bottom three floors remain, home to street-level businesses and office space above. The building is located at 341 Main Street.
You can decide: Is it bad luck, a coincidence, or a real-world jinx?
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