As you drive around the square, you may notice an old, red brick building that’s slowly falling apart. That building is the Mineral Springs Hotel.
The Mineral Springs Hotel was originally built in 1896 by the Paoli Mineral Springs Company and was built using bricks that were made locally. The building was four floors and around eighty rooms and had an opera house, bowling alley, billiard hall, restaurant, ballroom, Greyhound bus stop, and mineral baths.
“The group of gentlemen who were financing it were hoping to capture some of the traffic that was going to French Lick Springs hotel because of the mineral water there,” said Brenda Cornwell, secretary and founding member of Saving Historic Orange County (SHOC).
Mineral water was believed to have many health benefits and was highly valued in the 18th and 19th centuries.
“Paoli had a mineral water spring in Marea Radcliff Rest Park, and it had Lithia water. So they were using that to draw people in,” said Cornwell. “Back then, people were congregating in areas like that where the mineral water was considered helpful. People bathed in it, and they drank it.”
However, the hotel offered more than just mineral water. This hotel was also one of the first buildings to have electricity.
“The group of gentlemen decided that they wanted electrical power in the hotel, so they installed a steam-powered generator in the basement to create electricity in 1896. They were the first hotel in the county to have all of the rooms lighted with electricity,” said Cornwell.
The community also benefited from the electricity the hotel was producing.
“The generator created so much power that they were able to share it with the community. So for several blocks around the square and at the Courthouse, buildings could have light,” said Cornwell.
The Mineral Springs Hotel eventually closed in 1958, but the ground floor of the building was occupied by multiple different businesses for many decades afterwards.
The building went unoccupied and unnoticed for many years until 2019, when it caught the attention of Indiana Landmarks.
“Indiana Landmarks was created by Eli Lilly, and it is the largest historic preservation organization in the United States. It has more members and probably more money than any other preservation organization in the United States,” said Cornwell.
In 2019, this old hotel from the small town of Paoli managed to earn a spot on Indiana Landmarks’ 10 Most Endangered list.
“Indiana Landmarks creates a list every year of what they believe are the ten most endangered historic buildings in the state of Indiana, and it is a big deal when a building hits that list,” said Cornwell. “When they choose ten buildings in the state to say that they’re the most endangered, they consider them highly important buildings, very savable, and they do that to call attention nationwide to those buildings.”
The reason Indiana Landmarks makes this list is to call attention to the buildings, hoping that a preservation-minded person or group will purchase the building and restore it.
“I’m a member of Saving Historic Orange County, and we were able to secure a grant from Indiana Landmarks to employ a structural engineer who surveyed the building this early summer. They said that it is a stable building. It needs a roof, of course, and there is brickwork that needs to be done along the sides of the top where the roof is attached, but the building is stable. It can be restored,” said Cornwell.
The building owner was contacted but was unavailable for comment.
