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Flames consumed Dallas’ historic Ambassador Hotel early Tuesday morning, leaving behind only a shell of the 115-year-old landmark building.
Dallas Fire-Rescue was called at about 1:30 a.m. to the historic, former luxury hotel at 1312 South Ervay Street. Firefighters arrived to find the six-story building engulfed in flames
Smoke billowed over Interstate 30 as more than 100 firefighters attacked the inferno in the dark Tuesday morning. DFR used multiple ladder pipes, engine master streams and ground lines to try to put the fire out, but the flames were too strong and moved too quickly. The building collapsed in stages, Dallas Fire-Rescue said, leaving behind just a shell of the facade.
Only a caretaker, living in a trailer on site, was at the property when the fire started. The man told NBC 5 someone knocked on the door of his trailer at 1:05 a.m. and told him to get out. He said he walked outside, saw the flames, grabbed his dog and ran. No injuries were reported.
The six-story hotel was undergoing renovations first begun in 2017 to add residences, shops, restaurants, a swimming pool and a speakeasy bar. NBC 5’s Ken Kalthoff toured the building in 2017, shooting several 360-degree videos of the rooms prior to renovation. See the tours here.
A local architect designed and built the Ambassador Hotel, originally the Majestic Hotel, in 1904. The hotel took its current name in 1932, after a major renovation to the building’s exterior, according to a landmark designation report. Since its opening, the Ambassador Hotel has passed through the hands of three owners and has hosted three United States presidents — Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft and Woodrow Wilson.
Developer Jim Lake, who has been working on the project, said he was “in shock, brokenhearted and disappointed” after losing the building and that they had recently received approval to change the street configuration around the building, which was one of the holdups with the project
Lake said he would start over on a new project on the property. It would still bare the name Ambassador — but it will not be the Ambassador Hotel built in 1904.
“You can’t recreate history. History is history. It will never be reclaimed,” Lake said. “We can tell the story in whatever comes next.”
The damage was so extensive that investigators said they may never be able to determine what sparked the fire.
Embers from the fire started a secondary fire on the roof of a nearby building on Harwood Street. Firefighters were able to quickly put out that fire.
Many people came out to see the damage for themselves.
Crews brought in a wrecking ball and began to demolish the remaining walls of the hotel Tuesday afternoon.
Joel Christopherson said he worked as a volunteer at the Ambassador when he was a teenager.
“It was really sad,” he said of the fire. “There’s so much history in that building.”
He remembered the basement in particular.
“There’s an old tunnel in the basement where there was gambling,” he said. “They would run across the street and go to the stables to get away from police.”
Those old stables have since been renovated into the tap room of the neighboring Four Corners Brewery.
“I like the fact that we actually still have a piece of the Ambassador sitting right here on our property,” said Four Corners Owner Steve Porcari.
The promise of a new life for that landmark at the edge of the downtown skyline was driving much of the revitalization energy in the surrounding Cedars neighborhood. City leaders know it’s a loss.
“You lose that potential that could’ve been there,” said Mark Doty, Dallas’ Chief Planner Historic Presevation Officer. “If we had had that building restored what maybe that could’ve done to the neighborhood around it.”
The surrounding business owners are still committed to moving forward. But they’ll do it with a hole in the very history they’re trying to save.
“I think everything will be OK,” Porcari said. “It’s just, it was such a cool building. It’s hard to see it go.”
Check back for updates on this developing story. NBC5’S Alice Barr and Maria Guerrero contributed to this report.