A GIFT HOTEL

Evening Star, Issue 16987, 8 March 1919, Page 1

A GIFT HOTEL

- FOR THE TOWN OF FURNES. The famous Noble Rose Inn a-fc Fumes, Belgium, which was destroyed by tho Germans during tho war, may be restored by tho hotel men of tho United States, according to George W, Morgan, chairman of the restaurant division of the local Food Adrnkustra/tion, who has received appointment from John Bowman, chief of tho hotel division of tho United States Food Administration, as a member of a committee to carry out the plan. It is proposed that the new building shall be a gift from the hotel men of America to the Belgian Government as a historical monument, thus becoming a ward of the Belgian nation under the control of tho Ministry of Fine Arts, and not to be used for private profit. Tho olu hotel was the headquarters- of tho Belgian army just after it had stopped the onrush of the Germans along tho \ser. During the bombardment of Lurnes, Ist November, 1914, a German shell penetrated the roof, passed through tho timbers of the loft, and exploded in a room on the ih-st floor. Singularly, the head of tho shell was thrown against tho front wall, passed through, and fell into the street. Three months later a second shell exploded on the second floor of the old hostelry, blowing- the root to pieces, and causing the entire gable to break loose from its holdings and fall into the street. The spot where what is left of the old inn now stands is intimately aseoeiated with Belgian history. The old building bore the date of 1575, but its foundations belong to what was evidently a palace dating back to the thirteenth or fourteenth century. The old place was well known to American tourists before the war. For centuries its cuisine had been one of the most noted in that part of Europe.