The reopening process is underway at French Lick Springs Hotel, and at other venues and amenities across French Lick Resort. (Look for another blog soon updating all of those.)
Seeing the hotel returning back to its usual self is a
beautiful thing. Because these last three months have sure taken us to some odd
places.
For instance: Hearing the song “Wish I Knew You” by The Revivalists being played as the background music at the hotel. Love the song; don’t get me wrong. But hearing a 2017 rock hit at a historic hotel that dates back to 1845 is one of those things that made you chuckle.
Other days it was “Night Life Fever” by The Cars, or “Call Me” by Blondie wafting from the Bose speakers in the hotel’s corridors and lobby. Just like the usual old-timey jazz soundtrack that you usually hear at the hotel, it’s supposed to be background music. When you’re in a 443-room hotel that’s essentially been empty for three months, though, the tunes seemed amplified in the uncharacteristic stillness.
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| "America Marches Ahead": A fitting summer 2020 slogan. |
You hear stories about how the French Lick and West Baden
Springs Hotels practically emptied overnight during the Great Depression and
wondered what that’d be like. This is probably pretty close.
Most days, you could cover the entire length of French Lick
Springs Hotel — from the Event Center through the Promenade of Shoppes, into
the lobby and down to the spa — without seeing a single soul. Except maybe the
security officer who’s now stationed at the front door to give temperature
checks. Definitely a sense of time stopping. The elevators were frozen. The
poster promoting the (now-postponed) resort 5K in May was still up. March sale
signs still hung in the shops.
Oh, and there’s our new 22,000 square foot dining room.
The Hoosier Ballroom — which was going to be one of the
busiest hubs of activity at the resort this spring and summer hosting three
(now-delayed) concerts — sits mostly quiet for now, too. For the time being,
it’s been repurposed into an employee dining area to allow for social
distancing. Plenty of space to spread out here, at least.
Maybe the most stark sign that you’re smack dab in the
middle of bizarro world? A dark, silent casino. We’ve never seen it before.
We’ll probably never see it again. As of three days ago, the casino’s back open
for business, and slowly and steadily, things around the resort are springing
back to life more and more each day.
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| Shops at French Lick Springs Hotel are starting to open back up, and Fourth of July prep work is underway as well. |
That’s probably a good thing, because as a
below-below-average golfer, I’m probably not cut out for a long-term gig at our
Pete Dye and Donald Ross courses. As the earlier stages of reopening were an
all-hands-on-deck proposition with resort associates assisting other
departments as needed, I swapped the marketing office for the golf course a
couple days — cleaning carts, doing odd jobs and generally trying to not screw
things up. (My apologies if any of you golfers at the Donald Ross Course
happened to be missing a pencil with your scorecard.)
Just like me, one group of golfers from Tennessee were at
the Pete Dye and Donald Ross courses somewhat unexpectedly. They had planned a
outing to Whistling Straits in Wisconsin. When those plans changed, they
researched other premier courses that were nearby and open, they found
somewhere called French Lick that they’d never heard of, and road tripped here
instead.
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| West Baden Springs Hotel has been open to guests since mid-May, with reconfigured atrium furniture that's social distance friendly. Outdoor dining seating (below) has been added on the hotel veranda. |
But we’re still here. It’s hard to keep us down, after all.
The walls of these hotels have seen a lot: a depression, two world wars, even
the Spanish Flu pandemic 102 years ago. This is all just temporary. We’ll get
through this, too.
Hopefully before long, we’ll see that famous French Lick Friday afternoon “traffic jam” of cars streaming into town. Things will look a little different at first with new safety and social distancing measures. But some things are the same as they’ve always been. The flags are already up for the Fourth of July. The rocking chairs are waiting on the veranda. French Lick Springs Hotel is starting to welcome back its first guests. (And Frank Sinatra’s classic tunes have replaced the Revivalists.)
So whenever you’re ready to come see us, we’re delighted to
have you back.
— By French Lick Resort Marketing Copy Writer Brendan Perkins