The Deming Hotel

While taking a tour around Terre Haute in my English 305 class, I was happily surprised to see the old Deming Hotel lobby still looking as beautiful as it did in the 1920's. Although in my opinion the rest of the building could use a lot of work with it's appearance, I was still happy to see that Terre Haute had decided to preserve something so special. I was interested to see what the rest of the Deming Hotel looked like in the past. It was just as beautiful as I expected. I found pictures of the ballroom, dining room, lobby, writing room, barbershop, billiards room, and an actual key that was used for one of the guest rooms. For those who don't know, the Deming Hotel opened in 1914. It was built a fireproof building with 250 rooms and 200 bathrooms; Terre Haute's largest hotel and one of the largest in Indiana. The first name on the guest register was John Holmes who worked for Eli Lilly at the time and it's first manager was Billy Cochran. Guests at the hotel usually had dinner at 7 pm and dancing at 10 pm in the lovely ballroom where house bands and orchestras played. The building was purchased by Indiana State University to be used as a men's dormitory and later as a conference center. In 1979 it was renovated into apartments for the elderly and disabled which it is still being used for today.