French Lick Springs Hotel
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French Lick Springs Hotel | |
 Front of the hotel | |
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| Location | 8670 West IN 56, French Lick, Indiana |
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| Coordinates | 38°33′15″N 86°37′15″W / 38.55417°N 86.62083°WCoordinates: 38°33′15″N 86°37′15″W / 38.55417°N 86.62083°W |
| Built | 1901 |
| Architect | Bendelow, Thomas; Floyd, William Homer, et al; D.A. Bohlen & Son |
| Architectural style | Queen Anne, Renaissance, et al. |
| NRHP Reference # | [1] |
| Added to NRHP | September 28, 2003 |
The French Lick Springs Hotel is a historic resort hotel complex, now a part of the French Lick Resort Casino.
The location was originally known as the French Lick Springs Hotel, a grand resort that catered to those who came to partake of the advertised healing properties of the town's sulfur springs. The first hotel was opened in 1845 by William A. Bowles and was an immediate success. The original hotel burned in 1897, but the resort was rebuilt on an even grander scale by new owner Thomas Taggart, mayor of Indianapolis and chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
In 1904 the state discovered gambling was going on at the resort, and Governor Frank Hanly raided the hotel, and seized all its gambling equipment, from poker cards and chips, to klondike tables and roulette wheels. He brought suit against the hotel and forced it into receivership. The court case dragged on for several years, until his Democrat successor dropped the case and returned the company to Taggart. Taggart convinced the Monon Railroad to build a spur directly to the hotel grounds with daily passenger service to Chicago. The rich and famous were guests during the heyday of the resort, including Franklin D. Roosevelt (who announced his candidacy for president at the 1931 National Governors' Conference there), Ronald Reagan and numerous others. Casino gambling, though illegal, flourished near the resort (but not at the resort proper).
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The spring water known as Pluto Water[2] was bottled at a plant across the street from the hotel for use on the property and for commercial distribution.
Tomato juice is said to have been served for the first time at the hotel in 1917 when the chef Louis Perrin ran out of orange juice and needed an alternative.
The resort went into a steady decline with the Great Depression. It enjoyed a brief revival during World War II, then went into decline again, particularly after the illegal casinos were again shuttered by action of Indiana Governor Henry Schricker in 1949. The resort was sold to Sheraton Hotels in 1954 and renamed the French Lick-Sheraton Hotel. It operated under that name until 1979, when Sheraton sold it to Cox Hotel Corporation, which returned it to its original name.[3] Cox sold it to Kenwood Financial in 1986, who sold it to the Luther James family in 1991, who sold it to Boykin Lodging in 1997, who sold it to the Cook-Lauth Group in 2005.[3]
Revival in earnest came when, after considerable campaigning by local residents, Indiana gaming authorities finally awarded a long-promised license for a riverboat casino to the city. The new casino was a bit slow to get into the water, after businessman Donald Trump was granted the original operating license, only to have it withdrawn for a variety of reasons. The license was finally awarded to a partnership of business interests from within Indiana including billionaire Bill Cook. Cook later bought out the partners after a legal dispute. He restored the hotel at great expense and added an adjacent casino, and the complex reopened in 2006.[4]
The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is recognized as one of the Historic Hotels of America by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
National Conventions of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity were held at the hotel in 1940, 1953, and 1968.
Notes
- ↑ Staff (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
- ↑ Yaël Ksander, "In The Water," Moments of Indiana History (accessed Dec. 10, 2011)
- 1 2 "History Of Springs Valley".
- ↑ "History - French Lick Springs Hotel - French Lick Resort".