West Baden Springs Hotel - West Baden, IN
N 38° 34.025 W 086° 37.112
16S E 533232 N 4268806
Engineering marvel in a small southern Indiana town
Waymark Code: WMHDJQ
Location: Indiana, United States
Date Posted: 06/27/2013
Views: 7
The engineering landmark here is the West Baden Springs Hotel. "The Eighth Wonder Of The World" was built in 1901 and opened in 1902. At the time of open, the West Baden Springs Hotel had the largest free-spanning dome of any building in the world.
(Quote taken from (
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"The steel dome stretches 200 feet in diameter and rises 100 feet at its top. To accommodate thermal expansion, the inverted bowl-shaped structure originally rested on rollers that sat on the flat tops of six-story columns."
The importance of the area was the natural sulphur springs that were here at the West Baden Hotel as well as the French Lick Springs Hotel nearby (both owned and operated together currently).
The hotel was only open for around 30 years until the idea of mineral springs fell out of importance, mostly due to the Great Depression in the 1930s.
The building was then bought by The Jesuits who opened a Catholic seminary here until 1964. Many of the engineering features fell to disrepair during this time and the Jesuits tore down and destroyed many of the great features.
Following the Catholic seminary, Northwood Institute bought and ran another college here. The school was attended by hometown hero, Larry Bird, for a short time in the 1970s. The business school officially closed in 1983.
In 1987, the building was listed as a National Historic Landmark and in 1993, renovations began to bring this once majestic hotel back to its former glory, which was completed in 2007, 75 years after the original closing of the hotel.
(Information received from www.wikipedia.com)