From springs to spectacle
John Lane's Mile Lick Inn grew from the mineral-springs trade; Lee Sinclair took over in 1888 and enlarged the resort's ambitions.
01 / THEN & NOW
The improbable
second act.
Its story isn't just grandeur. It's fire, reinvention, long vacancy, a collapse, and a preservation effort that brought the building back into use.
Fire. Then a new world.
After the original hotel burned, architect Harrison Albright designed Sinclair's circular replacement. It opened in 1902 with a vast, unsupported atrium.
Other lives inside the circle
The hotel closed in 1932. The building later served as a Jesuit seminary and then a college before sitting vacant.
From ruin to return
After a partial collapse, Indiana Landmarks and Cook Group began the rescue in 1996. Overnight guests returned in May 2007.
THE LONGER STORYWhat happened between closing and reopening? ＋
Indiana Landmarks dates the hotel's closure to 1932 and its later uses as a Jesuit seminary and Northwood Institute. The resort's account describes a 180-foot, six-story section collapsing in 1991. Indiana Landmarks purchased the ruin in 1996, recruited the Cook family, and retained a preservation easement after the restored hotel reopened in 2007.
The dome's 200-foot clear span was considered the world's largest free span until the Houston Astrodome in the 1960s, according to Indiana Landmarks. That distinction belongs to its period; it is not a present-day superlative.
