All who enter West Baden Springs Hotel on the front brick drive are welcomed by it. The slogan on the double-arch entranceway that reads “West Baden Springs • Carlsbad of America.”
You might have seen that before and wondered. Carlsbad of America. What does that mean? Where did it originate?
Here’s the backstory on it.
“Carlsbad of America” appeared at West Baden when the famed arches were built in 1914, and the phrase alludes to the European spa tradition. The original Carlsbad is a spa town in the Czech Republic called Karlovy Vary, which was founded in the 1300s by Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV. During an expedition, Charles IV discovered thermal springs that he believed possessed healing properties, and he founded a spa there. The location was named “Carlsbad” in German, aka “Charles’ Bath.”
In the early 1900s, the name Carlsbad evoked a sense of prestige. It had name recognition globally — the way Rome or Paris or London are the vacation hotspots for American travelers today. People knew Carlsbad. And that’s why Lee Sinclair, the owner of West Baden Springs Hotel, wanted to promote his hotel using a slice of that Carlsbad influence. Folks were flocking to West Baden Springs Hotel for weeks at a time to take the mineral waters that were touted to have curative powers, just like they were overseas at the hot springs of Carlsbad.
When the old West Baden Springs Hotel was lost to a fire in 1901, Sinclair latched on to that Old World, European influence when it came time to rebuild his hotel. He drew from what he saw and experienced a few years earlier, when Sinclair and his family spent three months in 1898-99 visiting domed structures in a European tour that included stops in Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland, England and Scotland.
A local newspaper article detailed Sinclair’s travel plans before he left:
“He will visit all the noted resorts on the continent, and will carefully note their conduct that the American Carlsbad, West Baden, may have the benefit of his personal observations in the way of further improvements on his return home.”
West Baden Springs Hotel's arched entryway has had several different complexions over the years, including the period between the 1930s and 1970s when the hotel housed a Jesuit seminary (West Baden College) and then Northwood Institute.
Soon after, Sinclair was tasked with starting from scratch after the fire. But it allowed him to fulfill his vision for a domed hotel. For more than a half-century it was the world’s largest dome and regarded as “The Eighth Wonder of the World.”
Yet all along, the “Carlsbad of America” distinction remained on the archway as a nod to West Baden Springs Hotel’s roots. Fast-forward to the present day, and “Carlsbad of America” continues to provide West Baden Springs Hotel guests the first visual clue that they’re arriving somewhere special.
