and attracted visitors from Mick Jagger to Haitian presidents, was burned down by gangs this past weekend.

Hundreds of Haitians and foreigners mourned the news as it spread across social media, with the hotel manager on Monday confirming the fire 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 five to 15. In a tearful phone interview, Précil recalled how she learned to swim, dance, and sing at the Oloffson.

Longtime hotel manager Richard Morse, who had been overseeing the property remotely from the United States since the hotel’s closure in 2022, told The Associated Press (AP) on Monday that for several months, there were persistent rumours that the hotel had burned. “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.”  The attack on the community where the hotel was located began late Saturday, according to James Jean-Louis, who lives in the hills 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. (Jamaica Gleaner)