On the morning of March 23, 1867, an alarm went out on Bleeker Street and Broadway. The Winter Garden Theatre was on fire. The New York City firemen were quickly on the scene, but hardly quick enough to save the theater. They were able to salvage the building that housed the theater. The Southern Hotel, formerly known as the LaFarge House, survived the fire, but barely. The damage assessment was approximately $250,000 (nearly $5.5 million today).
In March of the following year, the LaFarge estate sold the site of the Southern Hotel at public auction. One of the city’s wealthiest individuals at the time, Elias S. Higgins, purchased it for $1 million. His plan was to build a new hotel. Subsequently, he hired architect Henry Engelbert, known for his French Second Empire style. It would be the second hotel Engelbert had designed for Higgins. The first was the still-standing Grand Hotel, built in 1868.
