Orange fencing and cones surround the almost 130-year-old Mineral Springs Hotel in downtown Paoli. It is considered one of the most architecturally distinctive buildings in the area. The brick building with four floors, two verandas and eighty guest rooms served as a hotel until 1958.
But it has been vacant for about 10 years. Black tarp covers the roof and windows, the building’s brick parapet walls are damaged, its skylight welcomed rainfall and pigeons have taken residence.
Greg Sekula, Southern Regional Director of Indiana Landmarks, said in April a storm tore off a secondary roof placed on the hotel to help contain leaks. The situation put the hotel back on Indiana Landmark’s 10 Most Endangered Places list after six years.
Donna Dillard and her family have owned the building for about 30 years. The building has become difficult to maintain due to the extensive damage and a lack of financial resources, Sekula said.
“I think they don't want to see the building lost. But if it were to continue to deteriorate without any further action there might be calls for demolition of the building,” he said. “We are not at that point yet. We certainly don't advocate for that. We want to avoid that. That's why we've got to be proactive in terms of trying to find solutions to the building.”
Dillard was unavailable for an interview.
Arla Jean Frazier, vice president of Paoli’s town council, wrote in a statement that there is a strong desire from the town and county to save Mineral Springs.
Mineral Springs was constructed after a major fire in 1894 to compete with French Lick and West Baden Springs. Lithia and sulphur wells were placed in the town. Water from the sulphur well was used by hotel guests. The hotel also provided electricity to the town because it had a generator. The hotel offered recreational activities like an opera house and a bowling alley, and had a bus stop. After 1958, it had different owners through the years with various businesses occupying the first floor.
Paoli native Duane Radcliff, 93, moved to the town when he was 5 years old from Hardinsburg, Ind., a town smaller than Paoli. He said he was impressed by how tall Mineral Springs is and its verandas.
Radcliff’s father owned a hardware store next door to the hotel. Radcliff worked at the store while growing up. He remembers the hotel being a bus stop for World War II soldiers. Busses would take enlisted or inducted men to their service location, he said.
“It was a very popular hotel during World War Two,” Radcliff said. “Lot of people stayed there overnight when they were on leave or visiting, and many times people would come over to the store and talk to me and tell me what was going on at the hotel and what was going to happen that weekend.”
Radcliff’s high school basketball team had team dinners each year at Mineral Springs.
Radcliff said it would break his heart if the building is unable to be saved.
Sekula said housing or overnight accommodations like an Airbnb has been considered. Additional land would also be needed for more off-street parking.
Sekula said the owner intends to place Mineral Springs on the real estate market but is wanting to do additional cleanup to make it more suitable for showing.
Support from the town and funding from state and federal government would be needed to restore the hotel, but budget cuts make it more difficult.
“It creates another layer of challenge right now for a building like this, but it's an integral part of the character of these small towns in Indiana to find solutions, to provide incentives, to adaptively reuse these structures,” Sekula said.
Terry and Brenda Cornwell, members of Saving Historic Orange County, an organization that protects and preserves historic sites, said the Mineral Springs Hotel is vital to the Paoli community.
“I think the heart of it is in our hearts,” Brenda said. “Those of us who grew up here remember it as such a phenomenal building on our square.”
Purchasing the building is going to be cheap compared to the cost of restoring it, Terry said. The total cost is estimated to be at least $5 million. The actual cost depends on what the building will be turned into.
Brenda Cornwell said her group has received a few grants. One helped in hiring a structural engineer after the storm who deemed the building to be stable. The second grant will help with removing material that suffered water damage from the storm.
“It'd be great if we just had a group of local people, like they did back in 1895, who would come together and put enough money into it to restore it and get it going again,” Brenda Cornwell said.
She said that if the building is isn’t sold and restored, future generations will not know its significance and will only have photos.
“It's a part of the community fabric,” she said. “I always think when you lose a building large or small, it's like a missing tooth in a smile.”