From the “you never know what you’re going to find in your
attic” files comes this fresh perspective from the past of one of our hotels.
You may have already seen one of this artist’s works on
display in French Lick Springs Hotel. On the wall on the lower level by The
Power Plant Bar & Grill, it’s a cutaway illustration of the hotel minus the front
exterior wall, depicting the activity going on inside the hotel. That illustration
was done in 1927 by H.M. Pettit. And this new one we’ve uncovered is from
around the same era, by the same artist.
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| This cutaway-style illustration by H.M. Pettit hangs on the wall between Power Plant Bar & Grill and the Grand Colonnade Restaurant in the lower level of French Lick Springs Hotel. |
Pettit’s great-great nephew stumbled upon it looking through
a trash bag full of old items that was in the attic of his garage. He thought
we should have it. And we’re glad to restore and eventually display another one
of these unique pieces of our past.
This overhead view shows the hotel landscape as it looked in
the 1920s or ‘30s. In the upper left are the gardens, which were a favorite
both of hotel guests as well as locals who’d visit there to take pictures. In
the lower right is the golf house and pump house, which once pumped the famed
mineral water from the Pluto Spring.
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Atop the Hot Pluto Buffet, you can make out one of the large
brass Pluto statues. 1875: The Steakhouse is now located here. |
In the lower left running diagonally, you can see the railroad which ran
between what is now the bowling alley and the original Pluto Water bottling
plant. Pettit’s fine detail shows the red canopies over the windows and the
Pluto statues atop the Hot Pluto Buffet (where guests went to drink the mineral
waters). Zoom in and look closely, and you can even see the exterior balconies on the
living quarters of the Taggart family which owned the hotel at the time. They
lived on the fifth and sixth floors of what used to be known as the “Deluxe
Wing.”
It’s not certain if Pettit was actually stationed at a bird’s-eye
perspective when he painted this. It’s very possible he conceptualized overhead
views from ground level, because he was nicknamed “the bird’s-eye view artist.”
He produced prospective views and conceptual renderings for proposed
architectural designs, and produced murals and commissioned works for the likes
of Standard Oil, Grand Central Station and West Point. Pettit was the official
artist for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1933-34 and the New York World’s Fair in
1939-40, though he died before completing his painting of the New York event.
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Some of Pettit's other works, including an overhead view of the
Chicago's World Fair that was made into a picture puzzle. |
Pettit’s creativity lives on in his artwork, which the
Taggart family likely commissioned him to create for their hotel. This newest
piece we recovered will need a little TLC to restore, but it’s still in pretty
good shape considering the thick, almost cardboard-like material it was painted
on. And down the road, it should be on display somewhere in the hotel. You’ll
have another up-close view of Pettit’s distinct, eye-in-the-sky artistic
perspective.
