Thursday Doors – French Lick Edition

Travel with me today  as we drive east from the center of Illinois into our neighboring state, Indiana. In my younger days, before the dawning of the Age of GPS, I would look at a paper map and choose a route based solely on the limited number of options the route entailed. For example here is a route that requires remembering only 3 roads… From Springfield, Illinois, if you take Interstate 72 east, when you get to Decatur, IL, US Route 36 morphs out of I-72. Keep going east on US 36 until you get to US Route 150, not to far from the Indiana border. Turn right and stay on this road into Indiana. You will pass through or near some interestingly named towns: Paris, New Goshen, Saint Mary of the Woods, Toad Hop, Fort Knox, Loogootee, Shoals, Rusk, West Baden Springs, and then our final destination, French Lick!

French Lick was originally a French Trading Post, located near a spring and a salt lick. In 1840, a health spa was opened to capitalize on the sulfur springs located here. French Lick in the 20th century was popular for the casino action here. The French Lick Resort Casino was renovated in 2005/6, and reopened as a 3000 acre complex split between French Lick and West Baden Springs.

Did someone say, “West Baden Springs”?  If so, then this is the right place for my Thursday Doors subject, doors at the periphery of the Grand Atrium of the West Baden Springs Hotel.  If you would like a good history of this hotel, The Mrs has a great recap over on her blog HERE…

The doors I am highlighting are the doors that lead from the atrium to the Mineral Springs.

Thursday Doors is a wondrous opportunity afforded to door-a-philes every week by Norm 2.0. His site is located HERE, and links to other doors worldwide are attached in the comments section…. Check it out!!

 

 

Thursday Doors – Galena Wrap-up

As promised, I am posting photos of some wonderful doors on some gorgeous houses from our Siblings’ Canadian Thanksgiving Holiday Adventure and Roadtrip to Historic Galena, Illinois, circa 2019.  I was going to have t-shirts printed up with that moniker, but we are all kinda too skinny to fit it on a single t-shirt, and there aren’t enough of us to print 1 word per shirt…. okay, Onward and Upward!

After The Mrs & I enjoyed a delicious repast at restaurant “Fried Green Tomatoes”, we decided to sally north from the historic downtown area and explore the residential area on the hillside above. On the map, you will note the Compass graphic in the lower right-hand corner, and you should also be able to locate Fried Green Tomatoes…

Up… This is the side of a cement stairway on Hill Street leading to the residential area. It was constructed in 1931.

And the view back down the stairs to downtown…. This stairway took us to Prospect Street where we conducted our residential doorway safari.

Our First Stop was in front of the Grace Episcopal Church because: 1) The Mrs is named Grace; 2) It has a wonderful red door; and 3) It illustrates the slanty-ness of the street!

West of there, and up the hill, we passed by the Lamberson Guest House. We both thought it looked inviting for a stay!

And we also admired the Edwards House;

and the Felt Manor Guest House;

and the quaint little Osprey’s Nest;

 

and this (apparently) unnamed home;

next to this (apparently) unnamed home;

next to THIS (apparently) unnamed home;

which took us to this “doubly-named” building, which WAS the High School, but is now apparently apartments/condos, “Galena Green Luxury Lofts”.

At this point, I was certain we were done with doors for the day, but as we walked down a wonderful little pathway to the west end of downtown, I spotted this door with a  fabulous companion round window hidden amongst trees and behind a huge stone wall and other obstructions. I stood on tip-toe and raised my camera over my head to get this image…

This little journey through Galena’s Door Land is inspired by Norm 2.0 and all the other Door-o-philes throughout the world who celebrate doors every Thursday. You can see Norm’s Doors and links to everyone else’s doors HERE.