Latest news with #HotelOloffson
Spectator
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Spectator
Hotel Oloffson is ruined – and so is Haiti
Earlier this month, in Haiti's tatterdemalion capital of Port-au-Prince, armed gangs burned down the Hotel Oloffson. As news of the attack spread, both Haitians and foreigners mourned the loss of one of the most beautiful gingerbread mansions in the Caribbean. Thinly disguised as the Hotel Trianon in Graham Greene's 1966 novel The Comedians, the Oloffson had served as a meeting place for writers, journalists, actors and artists of every stripe and nationality. Past guests include Nöel Coward, John Gielgud, Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams, Jacqueline Onassis and Mick Jagger (who wrote 'Emotional Rescue' there). Laughably, a room had been named after me as the author of a book on Haiti. The manager, Richard Auguste Morse, had been overseeing the hotel remotely from the United States since 2022 until it closed to guests two years later because of escalating gang violence. Rumours had long circulated that it was under threat of arson but news in Haiti is always haphazard: often there is only the teledyòl, Creole for 'grapevine'. So Richard didn't know what to believe when he heard the hotel had burned to the ground. 'I did what I usually do, which is call someone who has drones and have them go take a look,' he said. 'This time, when they called back, they said, 'Take a seat.' I knew then that this wasn't like the other times.' Two policemen were killed in crossfire while the fire raged. The hotel's destruction is emblematic of the destruction of Haiti's history and culture. Over the past two decades, the country has degenerated into a gangland tyranny where cocaine smuggled from Latin America has made the shanty-town drug kingpins ever more violent, unpredictable and powerful. The Oloffson was built in the late 1880s as a private residence for the Sam family who would supply two Haitian presidents over the next 30 years. It was a fairytale folly of spires and conical towers, with lacy white grille work on the eaves and balconies, and pomegranate and breadfruit motifs painted on the clapboard ceilings. The murder of President Vilbrun Guillaume Sam by an enraged mob in July 1915 provided the US government with an excuse to invade Haiti. Throughout the 19-year occupation that followed, the Sam mansion was a military hospital. After the Americans left, a Swedish sea captain called WernerGustav Oloffson converted it into a hotel. Hidden beneath a rug in the bridal suite was once a drain for sluicing the tiles; the suite had been an operating theatre. A succession of eccentric hoteliers followed, among them the American stockbroker Maurice De Young, who raised a species of cayman in the swimming pool and drank endless rum cocktails with Malcolm Lowry, the dipsomaniac author of Under the Volcano who was seen to walk fully clothed into the pool still holding his glass. Richard, a Princeton anthropology graduate, ran the Oloffson for almost 40 years. His mother was the glamorous Haitian danseuse and folklorist Emérante de Pradines. With his Haitian wife Lunise, he performed in a world-class Vodou rock band named RAM, after his initials. Tall and lanky, he seemed to regard the business of managing a hotel in beautiful, bedevilled Haiti as something of an amusement. Most nights he could be found reading a book by the light of a storm lantern in his cubbyhole of an office. 'There's another power cut as you've probably noticed,' he would say, 'and the telephone lines are down. It's the same old, same old.' Papa Dog, the hotel's resident mongrel, liked to flea his rump in the driveway while emaciated goats strayed in for morsels of food. Beyond the Oloffson the roads were clogged with buses known as tap-taps from the noise of their vintage engines. One day in the hotel I met the Haitian journalist Aubelin Jolicoeur, a cane-twirling Firbankian gadfly who appears as the gossip columnist Petit Pierre in The Comedians. Jolicoeur delighted in his fictional counterpart; on the author's death in 1991 wrote: 'I was grateful to [Graham] Greene to have enhanced my legend to such an extent that some fans kneel at my feet.' The hotel staff nicknamed Jolicoeur 'Jolifleur' – pretty flower (his full name actually translated as Littledawn Prettyheart). Dapper in a white linen suit and paisley ascot, Jolicoeur was inseparable from the hotel's history. In 1990 I proposed marriage in the Oloffson, going down on two knees to Laura after a burst of gunfire outside startled me. Thirty–five years on, we're still married. The Oloffson had survived military coups, dictatorships and earthquakes. Now it has gone, and Haiti is plainly ungovernable.
The Guardian
18-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
How destruction of Hotel Oloffson is symbol of Haiti's gang crisis
There was an outpouring of grief in Haiti when the Hotel Oloffson, a cultural and architectural landmark in Port-au-Prince, was set ablaze on the night of 5 July, in what local media described as retaliation by armed gangs after a police operation in its vicinity. For many, its ruins are a stark and sobering symbol of the state of a capital city on the verge of collapse, and a sign that a once vibrant culture may be fading as violent criminal armed groups continue their reign of terror. The 19th-century mansion, built in 1887 in the ornate 'gingerbread' style, once welcomed celebrities including Elizabeth Taylor, Mick Jagger and Graham Greene. A magnet for the world's rich and famous in the 1960s and 70s, it was reborn in the 80s as a hub for vodou musicians and a refuge for foreign correspondents. Watching the white wooden fretwork – often likened to lace – that once adorned the balconies reduced to ashes, has been tough for former patrons, who were once enchanted by its dreamlike, otherworldly charm. 'It was an extraordinary place, beyond time and space,' said Haitian historian and legal scholar Georges Michel, who would stop by, in the evenings on his way home. 'After two or three beers, I'd sometimes have dinner. I'd meet people. It was Haitian. It was home.' Some have already started dreaming of rebuilding the Oloffson, when the embattled city returns to some level of normality. But they are unable to make solid plans to do so as the Caribbean nation teeters dangerously toward a 'point of no return' – a warning that UN officials have expressed as the body count continues to climb into the thousands. The anti-government groups have been terrorising Port-au-Prince for the past four years, setting homes ablaze one neighbourhood after another and tightening their grip on the capital, cutting it off from the rest of the country. On 1 June 2021, a gang seized control of a stretch of the only national road leading south out of the city, in the name of a coalition of criminal groups. The next month Jovenel Moïse, the then president, was assassinated, triggering a political crisis that has prevented elected governance. Last year a transitional presidential council was established to prepare the country for elections after a fresh wave of attacks enabled gangs to take control of much of downtown Port-au-Prince. According to UN figures in January more than a million people were displaced and more than 5,600 were killed by gangs in 2024. Armed groups began occupying an area near the Oloffson in January, displacing residents and forcing staff to flee and the hotel to close. Universities on the same street have since shut down or relocated. Residents say there was a police operation in the area on the day the hotel was destroyed, but the cause of the blaze remains unknown, with clashes making it dangerous for officials or journalists to investigate. Haitian architect Daniel Elie said the torching of the hotel is 'part of a succession of losses', which has seen aspects of Haiti's culture 'going up in smoke'. 'The Oloffson was one of those rare spaces where two worlds tried to meet,' he said, adding that it was a part of the literary and artistic 'Indigenist movement' in Haiti between 1915 and 1945, which sought to reclaim African heritage and elevate the voices, traditions and lived realities of Haiti's rural population. 'All of that unfolded in venues such as the Oloffson. So beyond the architecture, its cultural legacy is even more significant,' he said. The hotel was one of the finest examples of gingerbread architecture – a popular style in Port-au-Prince in the latter half of the 19th century. The grand wooden houses, a blend of neoclassical and neo-gothic elements, were inspired by architectural trends in Europe at that time. 'A European bourgeoisie, strengthened by the Industrial Revolution, appropriated ancient styles and reinvented them' said Elie, a leading expert in heritage conservation. 'Haitian families were sending their children to Europe to study in universities and architecture schools, and they brought back all these ideas.' Some houses were even imported piece by piece from Europe. The hotel was designed by a French architect known only as Mr Lefèvre and assembled in Haiti by a French builder. Unlike many modern buildings, gingerbread houses like the Oloffson survived the 2010 earthquake, thanks to their flexible wooden frames. But many were lost to rapid urbanisation. Today, just a few dozen exist, local experts said – but scarcely any carry the historical weight of the Oloffson. Over the years it hosted Haitian presidents from Vilbrun Guillaume Sam in 1915 to René Préval in the 2000s, as well as musicians, film stars and renowned authors. Greene even set his 1966 novel, The Comedians, at the hotel and later co-wrote the screenplay for its 1967 film adaptation starring Taylor and Richard Burton. As portrayed in Green's novel, Oloffson was also a hotspot for foreign elites in search of exotic adventures during the 1960s and the 1970s. 'It was a kind of jet-set moment when Vogue would send photographers to shoot models in the lush gardens with glistening, shirtless paddlers in the background,' recalled French photographer and documentarian Chantal Regnault, who said she was struck by the colonial overtones when she first stayed there in 1979. 'You used to see a photo of the Oloffson on the cover of the city's tourism brochures,' recalled Théodore 'Lòlò' Beaubrun Jr of legendary Haitian band Boukman Eksperyans. As a child in the late 1960s, he would accompany his father, a renowned Haitian theatre artist, through the hotel's vast white-painted gallery, mingling with local artists. 'I learned so much, it was a school,' he said. 'When we started, it was all about catering to journalists,' said Richard Morse, who took over management of the Oloffson in 1987 with the help of his girlfriend. He later bought the property with his family. Speaking to the Guardian from Maine, he described the guilt and sense of helplessness as the hotel destruction came amid the rising tide of violence, murder and rape. Born in Puerto Rico to a Haitian mother and an American father, Morse had been a new wave rock musician in the US before moving to Haiti in search of traditional drum rhythms. In 1988, he launched Thursday night vodou music concerts at the hotel. This would later be a key moment in the rise of his vodou-rock band RAM, and a new era of cultural crossover for the venue, which he described as a fantastic 'Alice in Wonderland' experience. 'The gangs were the last clients – and they didn't pay,' he said. 'I need to go there and decide what to do. People keep telling me I can't go, but what I really want is just to stand in the yard. That's my home.' Haiti's stability was a significant concern for Caribbean leaders when they met earlier this month at the Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders summit. Opening the meeting, the outgoing chair of Caricom and the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, appealed for more global support for Haiti. 'The world really needs a check on itself when it comes to Haiti. If ever we doubted that there were first class and second class citizens in the eyes of the world, don't doubt it any more,' the Mottley said. She added that, in spite of the staggering loss of life, and the displacement of people and food insecurity, 'the world … has been unable to move beyond the promises and the platitudes that would bring help to the people of Haiti'. Mottley said the Caribbean's capacity to address the escalating situation is limited, and called for a 'truth talk, both within the context of what is possible from Haiti's perspective, but equally what is possible from the international community'.
The Guardian
18-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
How destruction of Hotel Oloffson is symbol of Haiti's gang crisis
There was an outpouring of grief in Haiti when the Hotel Oloffson, a cultural and architectural landmark in Port-au-Prince, was set ablaze on the night of 5 July, in what local media described as retaliation by armed gangs after a police operation in its vicinity. For many, its ruins are a stark and sobering symbol of the state of a capital city on the verge of collapse, and a sign that a once vibrant culture may be fading as violent criminal armed groups continue their reign of terror. The 19th-century mansion, built in 1887 in the ornate 'gingerbread' style, once welcomed celebrities including Elizabeth Taylor, Mick Jagger and Graham Greene. A magnet for the world's rich and famous in the 1960s and 70s, it was reborn in the 80s as a hub for vodou musicians and a refuge for foreign correspondents. Watching the white wooden fretwork – often likened to lace – that once adorned the balconies reduced to ashes, has been tough for former patrons, who were once enchanted by its dreamlike, otherworldly charm. 'It was an extraordinary place, beyond time and space,' said Haitian historian and legal scholar Georges Michel, who would stop by, in the evenings on his way home. 'After two or three beers, I'd sometimes have dinner. I'd meet people. It was Haitian. It was home.' Some have already started dreaming of rebuilding the Oloffson, when the embattled city returns to some level of normality. But they are unable to make solid plans to do so as the Caribbean nation teeters dangerously toward a 'point of no return' – a warning that UN officials have expressed as the body count continues to climb into the thousands. The anti-government groups have been terrorising Port-au-Prince for the past four years, setting homes ablaze one neighbourhood after another and tightening their grip on the capital, cutting it off from the rest of the country. On 1 June 2021, a gang seized control of a stretch of the only national road leading south out of the city, in the name of a coalition of criminal groups. The next month Jovenel Moïse, the then president, was assassinated, triggering a political crisis that has prevented elected governance. Last year a transitional presidential council was established to prepare the country for elections after a fresh wave of attacks enabled gangs to take control of much of downtown Port-au-Prince. According to UN figures in January more than a million people were displaced and more than 5,600 were killed by gangs in 2024. Armed groups began occupying an area near the Oloffson in January, displacing residents and forcing staff to flee and the hotel to close. Universities on the same street have since shut down or relocated. Residents say there was a police operation in the area on the day the hotel was destroyed, but the cause of the blaze remains unknown, with clashes making it dangerous for officials or journalists to investigate. Haitian architect Daniel Elie said the torching of the hotel is 'part of a succession of losses', which has seen aspects of Haiti's culture 'going up in smoke'. 'The Oloffson was one of those rare spaces where two worlds tried to meet,' he said, adding that it was a part of the literary and artistic 'Indigenist movement' in Haiti between 1915 and 1945, which sought to reclaim African heritage and elevate the voices, traditions and lived realities of Haiti's rural population. 'All of that unfolded in venues such as the Oloffson. So beyond the architecture, its cultural legacy is even more significant,' he said. The hotel was one of the finest examples of gingerbread architecture – a popular style in Port-au-Prince in the latter half of the 19th century. The grand wooden houses, a blend of neoclassical and neo-gothic elements, were inspired by architectural trends in Europe at that time. 'A European bourgeoisie, strengthened by the Industrial Revolution, appropriated ancient styles and reinvented them' said Elie, a leading expert in heritage conservation. 'Haitian families were sending their children to Europe to study in universities and architecture schools, and they brought back all these ideas.' Some houses were even imported piece by piece from Europe. The hotel was designed by a French architect known only as Mr Lefèvre and assembled in Haiti by a French builder. Unlike many modern buildings, gingerbread houses like the Oloffson survived the 2010 earthquake, thanks to their flexible wooden frames. But many were lost to rapid urbanisation. Today, just a few dozen exist, local experts said – but scarcely any carry the historical weight of the Oloffson. Over the years it hosted Haitian presidents from Vilbrun Guillaume Sam in 1915 to René Préval in the 2000s, as well as musicians, film stars and renowned authors. Greene even set his 1966 novel, The Comedians, at the hotel and later co-wrote the screenplay for its 1967 film adaptation starring Taylor and Richard Burton. As portrayed in Green's novel, Oloffson was also a hotspot for foreign elites in search of exotic adventures during the 1960s and the 1970s. 'It was a kind of jet-set moment when Vogue would send photographers to shoot models in the lush gardens with glistening, shirtless paddlers in the background,' recalled French photographer and documentarian Chantal Regnault, who said she was struck by the colonial overtones when she first stayed there in 1979. 'You used to see a photo of the Oloffson on the cover of the city's tourism brochures,' recalled Théodore 'Lòlò' Beaubrun Jr of legendary Haitian band Boukman Eksperyans. As a child in the late 1960s, he would accompany his father, a renowned Haitian theatre artist, through the hotel's vast white-painted gallery, mingling with local artists. 'I learned so much, it was a school,' he said. 'When we started, it was all about catering to journalists,' said Richard Morse, who took over management of the Oloffson in 1987 with the help of his girlfriend. He later bought the property with his family. Speaking to the Guardian from Maine, he described the guilt and sense of helplessness as the hotel destruction came amid the rising tide of violence, murder and rape. Born in Puerto Rico to a Haitian mother and an American father, Morse had been a new wave rock musician in the US before moving to Haiti in search of traditional drum rhythms. In 1988, he launched Thursday night vodou music concerts at the hotel. This would later be a key moment in the rise of his vodou-rock band RAM, and a new era of cultural crossover for the venue, which he described as a fantastic 'Alice in Wonderland' experience. 'The gangs were the last clients – and they didn't pay,' he said. 'I need to go there and decide what to do. People keep telling me I can't go, but what I really want is just to stand in the yard. That's my home.' Haiti's stability was a significant concern for Caribbean leaders when they met earlier this month at the Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders summit. Opening the meeting, the outgoing chair of Caricom and the prime minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, appealed for more global support for Haiti. 'The world really needs a check on itself when it comes to Haiti. If ever we doubted that there were first class and second class citizens in the eyes of the world, don't doubt it any more,' the Mottley said. She added that, in spite of the staggering loss of life, and the displacement of people and food insecurity, 'the world … has been unable to move beyond the promises and the platitudes that would bring help to the people of Haiti'. Mottley said the Caribbean's capacity to address the escalating situation is limited, and called for a 'truth talk, both within the context of what is possible from Haiti's perspective, but equally what is possible from the international community'.
Miami Herald
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Miami Herald
44 percent: Alligator Alcatraz, EssenceFest, Haiti hotel and more
The pages of Essence Magazine are etched in my brain — from the cover stories and columns to the ads and the photos. There was the AIDS/HIV issue which featured Rae Lewis-Thornton talking about her diagnosis (she shares her story again with updates in the latest issue of the magazine). And we can't forget the iconic photo with some of our Hollywood divas such as Halle Berry, Loretta Devine, Vivica Fox and many more. For little Black girls growing up, you aspired to write for the beloved Black mag or be featured in it. And of course, you couldn't wait for the day that you would one day go to Essence Music Festival, as it was once called, a three-day affair focused on 'a party with a purpose' that celebrated Black women and featured musical acts during the Fourth of July weekend in New Orleans. So, it was disheartening to read the complaints about this past weekend's affair being disorganized. Performing acts (at least three) have complained that the mismanagement of sets led to technical problems and delays. And some attendees complained that EssenceFest (as it is now called) isn't what it used to be. I'm hoping leadership behind the festival actually heeds comments from those who went and received what they considered was a subpar experience and be open to suggestions for next year's festival. INSIDE THE 305: As the jokes fly, Alligator Alcatraz evokes racist trope of 'gator bait' As jokes about alligators eating immigrant detainees made the rounds, I wrote about the racist history behind 'gator bait,' a racist practice that actually existed where Black children were used as literal bait for alligators during slavery and Jim Crow. The mocking of immigrant detainees harks back to 'the worst parts of our history' when similar jokes and tropes, such as 'gator bait,' were used to dehumanize Black people and desensitize people to the harm and violence inflicted upon them, says ACLU Florida Executive Director Bacardi Jackson. Bending the Bars: Hip-hop album showcases the talent at Broward County jails Julius Smith is hogging the phones at the Taylor Correctional Institute in Perry, northern Florida. He dials the same number on both phones, making sure he's able to hear clearly on both lines, WLRN reporter Carlton Gillespie reported. Smith, who goes by Prince Jooveh, is one of the fifteen incarcerated artists who appear on the new album Bending the Bars. The hip-hop album features sixteen tracks from different artists, most of whom are from Broward County jails. OUTSIDE THE 305: Gangs burn down Haiti's iconic Hotel Oloffson, host to stars and writers Haiti's storied Hotel Oloffson, a favorite haunt of writers and artists that survived dictatorship, coups and a devastating earthquake and was immortalized in novelist Graham Greene's 'The Comedians,' is no more, writes Haiti correspondent Jacqueline Charles. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson emerges as a leading dissenter in an era of Trump Two trends have emerged at the Supreme Court in recent weeks: President Donald Trump is on a winning streak and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court's junior-most justice, is having none of it, CNN reported. That dynamic was on full display yet again Tuesday as the court handed down a significant – if temporary – decision allowing the White House to move forward with plans to dramatically reduce the size of the federal government. Jackson penned a solo dissent and the justice, who recently took up boxing as a way to relieve stress off the bench, pulled no punches. HIGH CULTURE: Temple University course explores Kendrick Lamar's life Kendrick Lamar's life, cultural impact and music will be the subject of a new course at Temple University this fall, WHYY reported. The course, 'Kendrick Lamar and the Morale of M.A.A.D City,' will examine Lamar's life through an Afrocentric lens.
Telegraph
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
Graham Greene gingerbread hotel destroyed by Haiti's descent into chaos
Haiti's famed gingerbread hotel that inspired the novelist Graham Greene was burned down by gangs as the country plunged further into crisis. Once a presidential palace, the storied Hotel Oloffson was built at the end of the 19th century and had survived coups, dictatorships and the 2010 earthquake. But the hotel manager Richard Morse has confirmed the Port-au-Prince landmark visited by stars including Mick Jagger and Elizabeth Taylor had become the latest target of gang violence gripping the Caribbean country. Pictures of the devastation showed the once grand white mansion, which boasted turrets, spires and wooden lattice work had been reduced to piles of ash, with just the singed bones of the building left behind. Haitians mourned the loss of the iconic building which drew intellectuals, creatives and politicians from around the world, including Jackie Kennedy and Tennessee Williams. It also served as inspiration for the fictional Hotel Trianon in Graham Greene's 1966 novel The Comedians, set in Haiti under the dictatorship of Francois Duvalier, known as Papa Doc. 'From the beginning it was a place where Haitian elites would gather, and then international elites, filmmakers, dancers and writers would come and use the Oloffson to describe the history of Haiti, as Graham Greene did,' said Olsen Jean Julien, Haiti's former culture minister. 'It's a place where regular people would meet with elites, would meet with artists, would meet with everybody,' Mr Julien told The Telegraph. 'When gangs burn down a symbol of social inclusion and cohesion... It tells us that society is very sick,' he said. Haiti has been terrorised by a coalition of gangs led by warlord Jimmy 'Barbecue' Chérizier for more than a year, with criminal groups murdering and raping thousands of citizens. Gangs now have 'near-total control' of the capital, according to the UN, with criminal organisations now expanding to attack previously peaceful areas. More than 5,500 were killed in gang-related violence in Haiti in 2024 and more than a million people have fled their homes. Until last week the Oloffson had survived the unrest. Mr Morse, who had been overseeing the property remotely from the US since the hotel's closure in 2022, said that for months, there were persistent rumours that the hotel had burned down. 'So when I heard Sunday morning that it burned, I did what I usually do, which is call someone who has drones and have them go take a look,' he said. 'This time, when they called back, they said something like, 'take a seat.' I knew then that this wasn't like the other times.' Mr Morse said he was reluctant to talk about what happened to the hotel given that in Haiti 'so many people are dying and being raped and losing everything that I don't want the focus to be on the hotel'. James Jean-Louis, who lives in the hills above the Oloffson said the attack began on Saturday. He saw flames as he and other residents were chased out while police and gangs exchanged heavy gunfire. Nestled in the upscale community of Pacot in the southeast corner of the country's capital, the Oloffson was surrounded by lush gardens and often described as a mythical place known for its creaking parquet floors that characterise Haiti's endangered gingerbread homes. Built as a presidential palace at the turn of the 18th century, the Oloffson was one of the most famous examples of gingerbread architecture, a unique, ornate style that flourished in Haiti at the start of the 20th century. The building became a Marine Corps Hospital before a Swedish sea captain converted it into a hotel in the 1930s. 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. In the late 1980s, Mr 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 Vodou practitioners. The hotel closed in recent years as gangs began raiding and seizing control of once peaceful communities. 'During the earthquake, during the political unrest in Haiti it was a place of reference, where people would go and talk to friends and eat and to have discussions,' Mr Julien said. 'I've been to that place, I don't know, I can't count how many times... It's very rare a building has that kind of sentiment and historical value in Port-au-Prince, that's what we've lost, so it's very painful.' He added: 'The destruction… It breaks my heart because this is something that Haiti should take care of, not destroy.'
