More than a century ago, a fire destroyed the building that stood here. During the conflagration, in 1886 Elizabeth Kleininger, a French employee, died here. A later investigation showed that she had gone back in to rescue jewellery she had collected over her lifetime. Another account is that she ran back into the flames to rescue jewellery belonging to her mistress. Shortly afterwards it was rebuilt as a hotel. Witnesses have seen Elizabeth as a phantom, called the Blue Lady, looking for her lost jewellery, which a bystander found, scattered in the ashes around her body.