By KEITH WHITNEY – WXIA11

A tragic landmark in downtown Atlanta has been brought back to life with stunning success. The old Winecoff Hotel, site of the nation’s deadliest hotel fire, 61 years ago, has been reborn as the Ellis Hotel on Peachtree.

The Winecoff was an abandoned blight for decades, but now, it takes its place once again on the top tier of downtown hotels.

Atlanta’s newest hotel is actually one of the oldest — and while the Ellis on Peachtree comes with a tragic past, it also promises a bright future.

“We were very, very successful our first week,” said general manager Tom O’Leary. “We have a lot of people coming in looking at the property, very excited about the new hotel.”

Wednesday night, local dignitaries took a guided tour of the posh boutique hotel.

“As we walked through, I noticed that it’s completely fire sprinkler protected,” said Fulton County Fire Chief Larry Few. “And in the fire business, we know that 95 percent of the time that fire sprinklers are installed in residential occupancies like this, they work and they save lives.”

But 61 years ago, there were no sprinklers when a suspicious fire broke out, killing 119 people — many of them high school kids on a trip to Atlanta.

“Forty of them stayed here, 30 of them perished,” said filmmaker Dawn Fields. “Five of them were all classmates from Rome, Ga., so it really hit that small town hard because it was a great loss of life for such a small town.”

“This building transformed the way we fight fires not only in the city of Atlanta, but also across the country,” said Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders.

But the most remarkable transformation is to the hotel itself.

“Many of us have ridden by this block for 30 years, waiting for you to come,” said Mayor Shirley Franklin. “And it proves if you wait long enough, great things happen. Congratulations and wow!”

Despite the fact that the hotel wasn’t even officially open, the Ellis has been packed with guests.

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