Hail to the Chiefs: The Presidents Who've Visited French Lick Resort

The 1931 National Governor's Conference held at French Lick Springs Hotel. Future President Franklin D. Roosevelt is seated just right of center in the first row. (Closer-up photo in more detail below.)

French Lick Resort could lay claim to another name — The President’s Resort. We’re batting a pretty decent percentage in terms of U.S. commanders-in-chief who’ve visited here.

In total, five of our country’s presidents have made a stop at either French Lick or West Baden Springs Hotels. That boils down to one out of every nine presidents, a ratio that’s pretty good for Small Town America.

Of course the one that’s most well-known because of the nature of his visit was Franklin D. Roosevelt. He and 22 other state governors descended on French Lick Springs Hotel for the annual National Governor’s Conference held here on the first three days of June in 1931. Roosevelt was the governor of New York at the time, and he made the most of his time in French Lick via networking and speaking at the proceedings. He laid a groundwork gathering support for a run at the presidency the following year, winning his party’s nomination in a landslide before taking the national election a few months later in November 1932 in the first of his four terms.

Roosevelt’s successor, Harry S. Truman, also stopped in French Lick not long before assuming the presidency upon FDR’s death in 1945. His visit came sometime between receiving the vice presidential nomination in July 1944 and being sworn in as VP in January of 1945. Indiana Landmarks believes that Truman stayed at Mt. Airie Mansion (now The Mansion at Pete Dye which houses the golf shop) during his time here, as the more remote location was better for security reasons.

Harry Truman (right) and Thomas D. Taggart (center) during Truman's visit to French Lick in the 1940s.

Originally, the mansion was built by Thomas Taggart for his son Thomas D. Taggart and his family. The Taggarts owned French Lick Springs Hotel from 1901-1946, and the fact the hotel was a popular stop for prominent politicians was no mistake. Before becoming a hotelier, the elder Taggart served as mayor of Indianapolis and was regarded as one of the most influential politicians not just in Indiana but nationally as well.

Back to Truman: As goes an anecdote from an interview transcript from Truman’s Presidential Library & Museum, the future 33^rd president had lost his voice, so he went over to French Lick by himself. One day he had lunch with a few of his associates, but he didn’t talk much on account of the scratchy throat. After lunch, Truman told everyone he felt like taking a little nap. No one mided. So right then and there, Truman laid his head on the table and took a little snooze.

How’s that as an illustration that French Lick is the place to come to relax — even for future world leaders.

Gerald Ford (pictured at right) visited French Lick Springs Hotel in the 1970s.

Ronald Reagan was a repeat visitor to French Lick Resort — first in the 1950s as a spokesman for General Electric, then in 1972 after his political career ramped up. Just like FDR four decades earlier, Reagan attended a governor’s conference here back before he became a two-term president. Also in the 70s, Gerald Ford was a visitor at French Lick Springs Hotel. And while we don’t have an abundance of details about their visits as we might today, Ford, Reagan and the other political heavyweights have a permanent spot in our history. Their pictures hang with hundreds of others on our Wall of Fame in the Event Center Corridor.

Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd U.S. president

While most of the presidential visits occurred at French Lick, at least one happened up the road at West Baden Springs Hotel. That’s where Benjamin Harrison made the first visit by a president to either resort hotel, all the way back in 1883. Harrison and his wife, future First Lady Caroline Lavinia Scott Harrison, stayed at West Baden Springs Hotel in July 1883. This was when the original hotel structure stood on the West Baden grounds (before the current hotel was built in 1901). The Harrisons visited while he was serving as a U.S. Senator from Indiana, which was five years before his presidential election victory in 1888.

There have also been four U.S. vice presidents who’ve visited one of the French Lick Resort hotels — Nelson Rockefeller, Hubert Humphrey, Dan Quayle and Mike Pence — adding a couple more layers to our resort’s political legacy.