TS Today - Creating a Vision for the Future of Vacation Ownership Issue #96 Nov/Dec, 2007 | Page 18

TimeSharing Today

Page 18

one is in French Lick, the other is in West
Baden, but the two towns are side by side
so they appear as one location. The first
extravaganza is the French Lick Resort
Hotel, often called in days past, “America’s
Grand Dame”. With 443 guest rooms, a
13,000 square foot ballroom (plus a 6,700
square foot junior ballroom) with terraces
overlooking formal gardens, it is certainly
one of the grand hotels of all time. There
is a 27,000 square foot full service spa,
salon, and health club, a six-lane bowling
alley, and five restaurants. Close by is the
1920 fully restored Donald Ross golf
course, a nine-hole 1907 Valley Course,
and a new 18-hole golf course under construction.
Adjacent to the French Lick Resort
Hotel, and connected by a retail concourse, stands the entirely new Resort
Casino with 42,000 square feet of gaming
floor, 1200 slot machines and 32 tables.
The exterior of the casino is designed to
resemble a riverboat and to comply with
Indiana law, it actually sits “on a body of
water” —a moat no more than a few inches
deep.
Just up the street in a massive park
setting is the fully restored ($385 million)

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West Baden Springs Resort. Originally
sited to feature the therapeutic qualities
of the mineral springs on the grounds, this
Moorish styled structure is an architectural wonder, featuring a glass dome 160
feet high covering a circular atrium 200 feet
in diameter. More than 12 million one-inch
square tiles make up the floor mosaic. Room
balconies from six floors up open out onto
the atrium. Called the “Carlsbad of
America” for its mineral waters by the
founders in the mid 19th century, the West
Baden Resort is also known as the “Eighth
Wonder of the WorId” for the architectural triumph of the steel cantilevered span
of the dome. It has to be seen to be believed.
Although it has been 65 years since
their heydays when the French Lick and
West Baden resorts were classed among
the very best grand hotels in the nation, it
does appear a comeback is in the making.
Those glory years may yet return.
****
By Thomas Grames, Palos Heights, IL
The French Lick Villas are nestled in
the rolling hills of southern Indiana adjacent to the French Lick Springs Hotel.
The French Lick Springs Hotel built
in 1901 has recently been restored to its
original grandeur. The lobby of the hotel
is truly impressive, from the restored mosa X