West Baden Springs Hotel

The pendant and medallion shield were added to the center of the dome during the 1917 renovation. The pendant is 12 feet long and the medallion shield is 27 feet in diameter.

Southern Indiana History

Stephen Saalman

On February 27, 1987, West Baden Springs Hotel in French Lick was named a National Historic Landmark.

Called the "Eighth Wonder of the World," the atrium is 100-feet high and spans 200 feet across. The hotel was built in 1902, and over the past 122 years, the building has been used as a world class hotel, military hospital, seminary and private college.

*West Baden Springs Hotel once functioned as a Jesuit Seminary. A Jesuit cemetery can still be visited on the hotel grounds.*

One of the walls collapsed in 1991 after a period of neglect, and Indiana Landmarks stepped in to stabilize the building.

The Cook Group then gave West Baden Springs Hotel and the nearby French Lick Resort a multi-million dollar renovation to return the buildings to their original grandeur.

West Baden Springs opened as a hotel again in 2007 – 75 years after the it closed its doors to guests in 1932.

*The hotel closed to guests in 1917 and 1918 to serve as a Army hospital during WWI.*

History