West Baden Springs Hotel: A 1920s Splendor Reopens

When people in West Baden Springs, Indiana do a restoration project, they do it big time. Ninety million dollars was just enough to recently re-open the West Baden Springs Hotel to its early days splendor. In the 1920s this was a place where Al Capone and General John Pershing stayed. When the stock market crashed, the hotel took a huge financial beating and closed. Then the Roman Catholics snapped it up for $1 and turned it into a seminary. By the 1960s, when they were through with it, it sat taking up a huge amount of space. Seriously, if you're walking in the woods near the Hoosier National Forest in southern Indiana where it's located, you can't miss it. For example, one hundred feet above the atrium floor is a free-standing dome that was once the world's largest. The historical significance is one of the things that saved the building--plus it's now geared up for money-making. It's now part of the French Lick Springs Resort Casino complex.

From the pictures I've seen, it looks like just the place to be to feel like you're hanging out with the Great Gatsby crowd. It's gorgous. Hopefully, if you go with some dollars in your pocket for some gambling, Lady Luck will smile on you and you'll leave a winner. If not, lay down on the antrium floor, look up and enjoy the view. You'll have helped pay for it.

Filed under: Business, North America, United States, Hotels and Accommodations