Southern Indiana Business Report
FRENCH LICK – One of the nation’s most remarkable preservation efforts began taking shape 30 years ago, and the success story of West Baden Springs Hotel will be celebrated during the month of May at French Lick Resort.
National Preservation Month: 30 Years of the Cook Legacy will spotlight the efforts of the Cook family and others in the local community to restore the 1902-built West Baden Springs Hotel to its original grandeur. A vacant, endangered building in the mid-1990s when part of the building’s outer wall collapsed, West Baden Springs Hotel is enjoying new life again as one of the top tourist attractions in Indiana and the Midwest.
Many called the domed hotel’s restoration the “Save of the Century,” and the first steps of a multi-million-dollar revival began in 1996. Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana and the Cook family joined in a collaborative effort to save West Baden Springs Hotel – a National Historic Landmark which is now one of the three hotels under the French Lick Resort umbrella.
Bill and Gayle Cook, co-founders of Bloomington, Indiana-based medical equipment manufacturer Cook Group, also had a pioneering spirit when it came to preserving historic buildings in the Hoosier state and Midwest. Behind a $35 million initial investment from the Cooks, work began in the summer of 1996 to stabilize the hotel’s structural integrity and clean up the hotel’s exterior and surrounding grounds following decades of neglect. As building projects tend to do, it evolved. The Cooks took the next step with a full restoration of the hotel’s six-story interior, and in 2007, West Baden Springs Hotel opened its doors to guests for the first time since closing in the early 1930s after the Great Depression.
As part of the National Preservation Month commemoration in May, French Lick Resort will be unveiling an extensive collection of newly discovered “before” photos of the West Baden Springs Hotel restoration. Dozens of never-before-seen photos will be on display in the hotel atrium and in a special online gallery.
“These new photos will really paint the picture for our guests about how dramatic this restoration was. And on a personal level, these photos mean so much to me,” said Chuck Franz, a longtime Cook Group associate who now serves as CEO of French Lick Resort. “To carry the torch for Bill Cook and his vision is amazing to think about 30 years later. And to see those who jumped in with blind faith to make it happen 30 years ago is overwhelmingly humbling. The contractors and construction companies along with individuals from our local community need to be recognized as we stand on their efforts and broad shoulders.”
The Cook legacy of preservation has continued to the present day with the restoration and reopening of another historic building on the West Baden Springs Hotel grounds. The Billiard and Bowling Pavilion, which first opened in 1917, underwent an extensive facelift and reopened to guests in January 2026. With its completion, every building on French Lick Resort grounds has now undergone a modern renovation.
“To bring back another building that had not been in service for almost a century is a real treat we’re excited to offer our guests,” Franz said. “We brought it back pretty close to what it was like 100 years ago with six lanes for bowling and the billiard tables near the main entrance. We wanted to keep it as historically accurate as possible.”
See for yourself, take a tour
Guests can learn and experience more about French Lick Resort’s preservation story through tours and other events in the month of May:
Historical Trolley Tours: Offered May 4, 11 and 18, highlighting the historic towns of French Lick and West Baden Springs.
Behind the Scenes Tour: Offered May 14, highlighting spaces not normally open to the public that served the hotel’s first guests, including the kitchen, garage, ice cream plant, laundry and printing office.
Twilight Tour: Offered May 23, with costumed characters portraying famous hotel guests from the early 1900s.
Traditional Hotel Tours: Offered Wednesday through Saturday at West Baden Springs Hotel and French Lick Springs Hotel.
Historic Clay Tile Painting: Offered daily, giving guests a chance to paint clay tiles used in the original construction of the West Baden Springs Hotel roof.
