Kerns Hotel was a 162-room hotel located in the 100 block of N. Grand Ave. in Lansing, Michigan, built in 1909 by William G. Kerns. The hotel cost $50,000 to build and was the first hotel in the state of Michigan that had running ice water.
On December 11, 1934, a fire broke out in the Kerns Hotel, killing 32 people and injuring 44 people, including 14 firemen. The hotel was made of wood and fire spread rapidly, trapping many people inside of their rooms. The alarm bell sounded at 5:30 am in the 211-room four-story brick hotel. Two of the injured people died later; amongst the dead were seven Michigan legislators, state senator John Leidlein and state representatives T. Henry Howlett, Charles D. Parker, Vern Voorhees, John W. Goodwine, Don E. Sias, and D. Knox Hanna, who were in town for a special session of the Michigan legislature. A number of other legislators were injured but survived; among them were Maurice E. Post, Charles T. Kimball, and John Dykstra. Many of the hotel's 215 guests at the time escaped by the four fire ladders provided by the fire services, and eight people leapt out of the hotel onto nets. The fire is regarded by the Lansing Fire Department as the worst in its history.
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