French Lick Springs Hotel
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French Lick Springs Hotel
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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 # | |
| Added to NRHP | September 28, 2003 |
The French Lick Springs Hotel, a part of the French Lick Resort Casino complex, is a major resort hotel in Orange County, Indiana. The historic hotel in the national historic district at French Lick was initially known as a mineral spring health spa and for its trademarked Pluto Water. During the period 1901 to 1946, when Thomas Taggart, a former mayor of Indianapolis, and his son, Thomas D. Taggart, were its owners and operators, the popular hotel attracted many fashionable, wealthy, and notable guests. In the 1920s and into the 1930s, the resort became known for its recreational sports, most notably golf, but the French Lick area also had a reputation for illegal gambling. After a series of subsequent owners and renovations, the hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. The restored hotel, with its exteriors of distinctive, buff-colored brick, reopened in 2006.
The hotel site was located near a salt lick that wild animals once visited as they traveled along the Buffalo Trace in southern Indiana. Native Americans also used the area as hunting grounds. It became known as French Lick in reference to the French traders and settlers who lived in the vicinity of the salt lick. Some sources have cited a legend that suggests George Rogers Clark, who camped in the area during an expedition in 1786–87, may have named it after a site along the Cumberland River in Tennessee.
In 1826, encouraged by the presence of salt deposits near French Lick, Indiana's state government authorized the land to be mined for quantities of salt, but the saline content was insufficient to support large-scale salt mining and the property was offered for sale. In 1832 Thomas Bowles and his brother, William A., a Paoli, Indiana, physician and early land speculator, purchased 1,500 acres (610 hectares) of land that included the site near the mineral springs. Doctor Bowles eventually built an inn on the property; it became known as the French Lick Springs Hotel.
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