Back Home Again In Indiana: Paoli and French Lick

After Bloomington, I headed further south towards my destination of the West Baden Springs Hotel. The two cities are about an hour apart, and in between are a number of quaint little towns that still have their Main Streets and Town Squares. Paoli, Indiana is probably one of my favorites.



Although many of the buildings on the square no longer operate in the same capacity of their original purpose, I love the fact that adaptive reuse has allowed the historic architecture to survive.





Vintage signage!



West Baden's neighboring town is called French Lick Springs. Before checking into my hotel, I took a detour to the American Legion Building in French Lick. I became good friends with one of the locals, Norma Brock, when I was a tour guide at the WBS Hotel back in the 90's. She had taken me inside the Legion, which was formerly the Elite Club Casino back in the roaring 20's.



Entering today, you see a smoke-filled bar with a few patrons chatting it up, but at the back of the building (which was the original entrance), there are still vestiges of The Elite Club, as can be seen in this tile floor detail. The bartender was gracious enough to take me into this entryway so that I could take photos.



Norma had also pointed out the button in the entryway that was pressed by an employee when the cops were arriving to let patrons in the back know that it was time to scram. Norma's father, Clifton Marshall, had worked at The Elite, and she had many fond memories of the Club from its heyday. In addition, she had also taken me to another (former) Casino that her father had worked at in French Lick called The Gorge. At that time it was a nursing home. On that particular visit about 16 years ago, it was night and my crappy camera didn't get very many decent photos. I had heard that The Gorge was in bad shape and actually up for sale. I decided to trek up to it again and take some photos before it deteriorated anymore or (heaven forbid) met the wrecking ball.



The stone entry arch is very imposing, even though its surroundings are overgrown.



The vestiges of a fountain:



The original building doesn't look like much today; in its heyday, it resembled a quaint Arts & Crafts style lodge.







I'm sure the grounds were lovely back in the day.





Trains were once a vital transportation link to larger cities, such as Chicago, Louisville, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. By now, most of the rails to those cities have been removed, and the Train Station in French Lick serves as a museum and ticket office for local train tours to Cusco Corners.





Pluto water was all the rage back in the early 20th Century; its tagline, "When Nature won't, Pluto will" was a semi tactful way of saying it helped constipation!



The Pluto Spring is still located behind the French Lick Springs Hotel, where the foul sulfur odor still permeates the air.





The Hotel was recently restored; although it looks fantastic, it does not begin to compare to the unique architectural genius of its neighboring competition, The West Baden Springs Hotel.



On the steamy July day that I visited, the fans and rocking chairs on the shaded porch were a welcome site.



The lobby area is quite ornate, with lots of gilding and hand-painted artistic touches.







Still, I prefer its next door neighbor, which we will visit on my next post.

See more vintage and current French Lick photos on my French Lick, Indiana web page.