West Baden Springs Hotel

Ivy Tech, Cook Group, Springs Valley Unite to Open Learning Center

First Posted: 11/6/12 04:52 PM EDT Updated: 11/6/12 04:52 PM EDT
Originally published August/September 2012

BY ELISABETH ANDREWS Restoring West Baden Springs Hotel and French Lick Resort was only the first step of a larger “impact project,” says Steve Ferguson, chairman of Cook Group, which owns and operates the sister properties. Now that the historic hotels are generating tax revenue for Orange County, the next phase of the project can begin with the opening of the Springs Valley Learning Center (now called Orange County Learning Center at Springs Valley). This postsecondary education center, run by the Bloomington campus of Ivy Tech Community College, is designed to ensure that the resort’s economic momentum develops into widespread opportunities for community revitalization. “The bricks-and-mortar engineering is the easy part,” says Ferguson, who helped oversee more than 12 years [...]

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Sinclair’s: A Return to the Days of Elegant Dining (Photo Gallery)

First Posted: 6/22/12 09:37 AM EDT Updated: 6/22/12 09:37 AM EDT
Originally published August/September 2008

BY CHRISTINE BARBOUR A haunting air of nostalgia has long hung over the West Baden Springs Hotel and its neighbor the French Lick Resort: a faint whiff of days gone by, carried on the breeze, like the barely detected hint of sulphur from the Pluto Waters that made these spa resorts famous in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Today those with a taste for nostalgia can indulge it, literally, at Sinclair’s, the restaurant at the West Baden, where the chefs have created a menu that puts a modern twist on classic dishes from the good old pre-cholesterol-counting days, when sauces were creamy and chicken was fried and Caesar salad was prepared tableside with a raw egg yolk. Menu notes [...]

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