Lee Sinclair's Eighth Wonder of the World

by Ward L. Ginn, Jr.

Since antiquity, magnificent domes have crowned some of the great architectural achievements of mankind: the Pantheon rebuilt by Hadrian in 125 A.D.; Filippo Brunelleschi’s 15th century masterpiece in Florence, the domed cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore; and St. Paul’s Cathedral, built by Christopher Wren in the early 18th century. Two hundred years later in 1902, Lee W. Sinclair completed in just 11 months the world’s largest free standing domed structure up to that time --- the atrium of the West Baden Springs Hotel.  Audacious and overwhelming to the eye, the West Baden Springs Hotel was heralded in 1929 as being “the eighth wonder of the world” and now is considered the “Save of the Century.”

West Baden Springs is located 100 miles south of Indianapolis, situated amidst a pastoral setting of wooded hills east of the Hoosier National Forest.  The area’s mineral springs and salt licks were discovered by George Rogers Clark in 1778, and it was not many years thereafter that a thriving resort business was built, in part, upon the advertising hype that the local mineral baths and spring water possessed curative powers over all kinds of physical elements.  Named after the famous springs in Wiesbaden, Germany, West Baden Springs in the mid 19^th century was made more accessible to tourists from all over the Midwest and the East by the extension of rail service into the area by the Monon Railroad.

 Among the business entrepreneurs lured to West Baden Springs by the thriving resort business and medicinal qualities of the town’s mineral water was Colonel Lee Wiley Sinclair, an Indiana native who served in the Civil War.  A resident of the nearby town of Salem after the war, Col. Sinclair was the president of a local bank and owner of the largest woolen mill in southern Indiana.  Having established himself as a successful businessman, Lee Sinclair expanded his holdings to include a textile mill in Chicago and a department store in Salem.  His only setback occurred when his factory was destroyed by fire in 1883.  In the late 1800s, he entered politics and served a term in the Indiana House of Representatives. 

Sinclair acquired controlling interest in the West Baden Hotel in 1888, changing its name to the West Baden Springs Hotel.  He made many improvements and additions to the property, including a bathhouse built over one of the four springs on the property.  Mineral water from the hotel’s most prolific springs was bottled and sold nationally under the brand name of “Sprudel Water.”  Promotional ads for the water boasted that it would cure 50 different ills.  The good times were not destined to last because in July 1901, the hotel made of wood burned to the ground in less than an hour.  Fortunately, however, no one died in the fire and not everything was lost; the bottling works, springs, baths and other recreational facilities survived the fire. Although fortunate that he did not lose everything, the fire nonetheless devastated Sinclair, the second one he had experienced in his business career.  He gave serious thought to selling his interest in the hotel to competitors.  However, tradition has it that Sinclair’s beloved daughter, Lillian, persuaded him to keep the hotel property and rebuild. So at the age of 65 when most people would be reluctant to start over following such a staggering loss, the former Civil War colonel decided to rebuilt, but only if the structure was fireproof and made of steel and concrete.  Perhaps one of the principal reasons the hotel, built in 1902 during the administration of Theodore Roosevelt, is still standing after almost 100 years is Sinclair’s insistence that the structure be fireproof.

Likened to a “phoenix rising from the ashes,” Sinclair’s new hotel, designed by architect Harrison Albright, was built on a grandiose scale. The dome that crowned the hotel’s atrium was the world’s largest until the opening of the Houston Astrodome in 1965.  Five hundred workers labored for 270 days to complete the giant 500-room hotel, and it was opened one year, to the day, after the fire that consumed its predecessor.  Because it defied the standards of its time, some engineers regarded the hotel as a folly.  Sinclair and Albright were to prove them wrong.

To visitors in 1902 and today, the atrium with its dome is a breathtaking site.  The central feature, the atrium has a circumference of 600 feet and a diameter of 200 feet (the largest previously built domed structures were only 140 feet in diameter).   The dome towers six stories above the floor of the atrium. Encircled by the hotel, the atrium served as the hub of all activity.  The center of the atrium originally had a fountain, but it was later moved to the driveway of the hotel.  Chairs and palm trees were scattered throughout the atrium providing a lounge for guests.  Facing the atrium on the first floor were a variety of shops to serve the needs of guests.  

A huge fireplace, capable of accommodating fourteen-foot logs, provided warmth on chilly days.  Originally brick, the fireplace now features a pictorial scene made from a special type of pottery.  An elf-like character portrayed in the scene is Sprudel, the trademark and brand name of the medicinal water sold by the hotel.  The fireplace is considered irreplaceable and is reported to have an estimated value in the millions. 

The atrium is capped by a six story free standing dome that rests on 24 ribs of steel, each weighing 4.5 tons.  The ribs radiate out and downward from a central hub to the 24 pillars that supports them.  The hub of the dome is 10 feet long, 16 feet in diameter and weighs 8.5 tons.  To compensate for the contraction and expansion of the skeletal structure of the dome due to the weather, the ends of the support ribs are attached at their bases to rollers that roll up and down tracks. Two concentric rows of rooms encircled the domed atrium, the inside row facing the atrium and the outside row overlooking the hotel grounds.  The floor space of the hotel was almost 237,720 square feet, and the atrium covered an additional 31,416 square feet.

Instead of being the folly some predicted, the West Baden Springs Hotel proved to be a world class accommodation for nearly three decades.  It was promoted as the “Carlsbad of America” in reference to the famous spa, Karlovy Vary in the Czech Republic.  It catered to society’s elite and notorious, including the likes of Diamond Jim Brady, New York Governor Al Smith, Al Capone and Chicago Mayor Big Bill Thompson.  The Chicago White Sox, Cubs and Cincinnati Reds conducted spring training in West Baden Springs and many of America’s high rollers preferred the hotel’s mineral waters to those of Warm Springs, Georgia.  Guests never had to leave the hotel grounds because in the atrium there were shops of every kind --a bank, barbers and a stock brokerage firm conveniently located to serve every need –and the hotel offered a wide range of recreational activities.

Lee Sinclair died in 1916.  His daughter and her husband continued to operate the hotel until 1923 when it was sold.  Although gaming was illegal in Indiana, the new owner turned the hotel into a Gatsby-era casino, but time was running out on the hotel’s good fortunes.  After the stock market crash in 1929, the hotel ceased to be an affordable luxury and eventually closed in 1932.  It was sold in 1934 to the Jesuits and was operated as a seminary for the next 30 years. To provide a more austere environment befitting its new purpose, the hotel was stripped of most of its elegant appointments, including the four large Moorish towers above its front entrance. From 1966 to 1983, private college specializing in hotel and restaurant management programs owned the hotel.  Before the college closed its doors in 1983, local basketball hero Larry Bird conducted basketball clinics and games in the hotel’s atrium.  Although a National Historic Landmark, this once grand edifice, through disuse and neglect, gradually fell into a state of dilapidation, and in 1991, a large section of the exterior of the hotel collapsed.  Its future became questionable.

In 1996, the hotel was purchased by Historic Landmarks Foundation and has since been undergoing partial restoration for eventual sale to a resort company, hotel chain, corporation looking for a retreat or a park authority.  The four Moorish towers above the hotel’s entrance have been replaced and the atrium, dome, and hotel lobby, outbuildings and grounds have been fully restored to their previous grandeur. About 30 percent of the necessary renovation has been completed at a cost of over $30 million.  It is expected that the eventual purchaser will complete the restoration work, making the hotel and grounds once again whole.  The hotel in its current state of restoration is fondly referred to as the “Save of the Century.”  The miraculous restoration of the hotel is another story, itself.

The West Baden Springs Hotel has a price tag at the moment of around $32 million.  Hopefully a responsible purchaser will be found soon who will complete the restoration.  The hotel in the meantime is open to the public.  Adult tickets for a 50-minute tour are $10 and are well worth it.  Thousands of people have visited the hotel in its partially restored state, and the proceeds from the tours have and continue to be used to help defray the costs of restoration and property maintenance.  West Baden Springs is about a two hour trip by car from Indianapolis and a little over one hour from Louisville, Kentucky.   From Indianapolis, visitors are advised to take State Road 37 south to Paoli, then  west on State Road 150, and  finally  south on Indiana 56.  From Louisville, it is a shorter drive of about 50 miles on State Road 150.  Whether or not you are a Sinclair, the trip will be an interesting and a rewarding one.