Sixty Lions on the Ellis Hotel's Cornice - Really - I Counted Them

The Ellis Hotel was the Winecoff Hotel, scene of a tragic fire, December 7, 1946, in which 119 people died. Allen Goodwin's Winecoff Fire Remembrance Page is a moving, historical reminder. Another Atlanta tragedy, the Orly Crash in 1962, killed 130.

That needs to be said, but this is the Archtiecture Tourist and we are here to talk about sixty lions on the cornice.


The Winecoff opened in 1913. William Lee Stoddart designed it as well as the Georgian Terrace and the Ponce Apartments.


Can you see the lions from down here?

I'd never have noticed except that whitespace put together an exposition for Stanley Beaman & Sears studio on the top floor of  "Davisons" featuring art by Ann Stewart and Seana Reilly.

This was a 3-fer: Art, Architecture, Elevation so I went.


When I got out of the elevator on the 6th floor, the Ellis cornice was right in my face.


What do you think of the cornice detailing? And it has lions.

Lions-in-the-cornice has been a good look for a long time. See The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Limestone cornice with a lion’s head early 4th century B.C..

I had to count them.


The south cornice has three


The east cornice (facing Peachtree Street)  has 25.


The north cornice (facing Ellis Street) has 29


The west cornice has three.


But what's the story on Lion 45?


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