Rebuilt and expanded on an even grander scale, especially under the ownership of Thomas Taggart, a former mayor of Indianapolis and chairman of the Democratic National Committee, the popular resort attracted many fashionable, wealthy, and notable guests. Subsequent owners enlarged the original hotel, but it burned in 1897. Bowles built and opened the first hotel on his property around 1845. The hotel catered to guests seeking the advertised healing properties of the town's sulfur springs, three of which were on the hotel's property. The site was originally known as the French Lick Springs Hotel, a grand resort that was a mineral spring health spa.
