West Baden Springs: Legacy of Dreams (by Chris Bundy)
To celebrate my retirement in September 2024, my husband and I spent a few days at the West Baden Springs Hotel in French Lick, Indiana. It’s a magnificent and unexpected gem tucked into a very small town. (You can read my blog post about our adventure here.) The hotel’s gift shop offered a couple of books on the property’s history, and I couldn’t resist. Since we’re already planning a return visit, it felt like the perfect time to finally dive into them. I started with West Baden Springs: Legacy of Dreams by Chris Bundy.
Its full title—West Baden Springs: Legacy of Dreams: The Complete History in Script and Pictures—signals exactly what it is: a self-published, richly illustrated nonfiction account of the famed West Baden Springs Hotel, once dubbed the “Eighth Wonder of the World.” Published through the West Baden Historical Society, the book tends to circulate mainly through used-book sellers and antiquarian shops rather than mainstream retail. It traces the hotel’s story from bricks and mortar to the people who built the dream and those who lived it, blending archival photographs with narrative history.
The book is packed with information about the hotel and its many transformations. The striking building that stands today is actually the second West Baden Springs Hotel; the first burned to the ground after a kitchen fire. The owner, inspired by his world travels, rebuilt on a grand scale (the architecture drawing inspiration from classical forms, including echoes of the Parthenon). Over the decades the property has endured hardship and reinvention: it served as an Army hospital during World War I, later became a Jesuit seminary, then a college, and finally returned to life as a hotel. Entertainment once ranged from gambling and bowling to baseball and horseback riding. Most unusual of all, a previous owner’s involvement with a circus meant the performers, acrobats, and animals wintered in French Lick.
Overall, it’s a solid book that delivered a great deal of interesting information, though it can be repetitive in places. The photographs are a real strength, offering a vivid visual complement to the stories of the hotel and the people instrumental in its creation and survival. The cover design is elegant, and the thick, glossy pages give the volume a satisfying weight and clear sense of quality.
I pick up books about places for the facts and history; I don’t expect literary flourishes. The writing here is average—Bundy’s background is in theater rather than creative writing—but that feels secondary to the wealth of detail. What I especially appreciated was the personal note near the end, where he shares his own time living at the hotel when it housed Northwood Institute. His connection to the place is unique and adds warmth to the account.
I’m glad to have gained so much knowledge about West Baden Springs through this book. It’s also a beautiful addition to my library. Next up: the other volume I brought home from our stay, Risen from the Ashes.
You can read about our stay at West Baden Springs Hotel and the rest of our French Lick adventure in the post linked below.
I love how the colors in my hydrangea bush evolve as they grow during the summer. They start out a very light pink, then deepen to a rich mauve. I also find them such an elegant bloom, and I thought they paired perfectly with the elegance of this book cover.
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