West Baden Springs Hotel
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West Baden Springs Hotel
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Dome of the hotel
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| Location | West of State Road 56, West Baden Springs, Indiana |
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| Coordinates | 38°34′2″N 86°37′5″W / 38.56722°N 86.61806°WCoordinates: 38°34′2″N 86°37′5″W / 38.56722°N 86.61806°W |
| Area | 100 acres (40 ha) |
| Built | 1901 |
| Architect | Harrison Albright; Oliver J. Westcott |
| NRHP Reference # | 74000016 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | June 27, 1974 |
| Designated NHL | February 27, 1987 |
The West Baden Springs Hotel, part of the French Lick Resort Casino, is a national historic landmark hotel in West Baden Springs, Orange County, Indiana. It is known for the 200-foot (61 m) dome covering its atrium. Prior to the completion of the Coliseum in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1955, the hotel had the largest free-spanning dome in the United States. From 1902 to 1913 it had the largest in the world. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974, the hotel became a National Historic Landmark in 1987. It is a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark and one of the hotels in the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Historic Hotels of America program.
Roaming bear and herds of deer and buffalo once visited the salt lick near the present-day site of the West Baden Springs Hotel as they traveled along the Buffalo Trace in southern Indiana. Native Americans also used the area as hunting grounds. Following the arrival of French traders and settlers in the vicinity, the site became known as French Lick. When George Rogers Clark passed through southern Indiana in 1778, he camped less than a mile from the salt licks and mineral springs in Orange County that became known as French Lick and West Baden Springs. The presence of salt deposits enticed the state government to consider mining large quantities of salt for early pioneers to use in preserving meat, but when it was determined that the saline content was insufficient to support large-scale salt mining, the property was offered for sale around 1832. William A. Bowles, a local physician, purchased the land that included the mineral springs and built a small inn. Constructed around 1840–45, it developed into the French Lick Springs Hotel, a popular health resort.
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