Processed by
Dorothy A. Nicholson
Volunteers: Betty Alberty, Robert W. Smith
November 2006
Manuscript and Visual Collections Department
William Henry Smith Memorial Library
Indiana Historical Society
450 West Ohio Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202-3269
|
VOLUME OF |
Visual Materials: 1 box of photographs, 1 box of OVA size
photographs, 1 box of OVB size photographs, 1 folder color photographs |
|
COLLECTION |
Ca. 1890–1966 |
|
PROVENANCE: |
Claypool Hotel 1968; Henry County Historical Society 2002; Raymond Featherstone 2002 |
|
RESTRICTIONS: |
None |
|
COPYRIGHT: |
|
|
REPRODUCTION |
Permission to reproduce or publish material in this collection must be obtained from the Indiana Historical Society. |
|
ALTERNATE |
|
|
RELATED |
Rotary Club of Indianapolis (M0760) |
|
ACCESSION |
1968.0047, 2002.0021, 2002.0572 |
|
NOTES: |
|
The history of the Claypool Hotel begins in pre-Civil War days. Hervey Bates, Indianapolis banker and businessman, saw opportunity for providing housing accommodations for transients en route west. In 1852 workers broke ground on the northwest corner of Washington and Illinois streets and the four-storied Bates House, decorated in Victorian style, was completed in 1853 at a cost of $75,000.00. Its cost of $2.00/room/day, including meals, proved attractive to travelers, including President-elect Abraham Lincoln. He overnighted on 11 February 1861 when he was en route to Washington, D.C. for his First Inaugural. In a speech from the Washington Street balcony of the hotel he called for the preservation of the Union. The following day Hoosier Governor Oliver P. Morton hosted the President at breakfast at the hotel.
In time the Bates House languished and the hotel was razed in 1901. After much planning and up-front support, a new hotel, the brain child of Henry W. Lawrence manager of Bates House, emerged on the same site. The 495-room, 8-story Claypool, was built at a cost of $1,250,000.00. Named in honor of Edward Fay Claypool, a wealthy Connersville businessman, the new hostelry could boast of more bathtubs than any other hotel in the country and a telephone in every guest room. Its lobby was reported to be the largest hotel lobby in the country. It also advertised a theatre, assembly hall, ballroom balcony overlooking the lobby, a roof garden, private Renaissance dining rooms, and Atrium Café patterned after the Roman City Herculaneum. Dishes were washed by “the art of electricity,” refrigerators were cooled without ice, and a separate milk house chilled dairy products at ideal temperatures. The Riley Room, whose frescoes quoted from poems of Indiana’s most famous poet, delighted guests. In short, it had “every luxury known” to commercial hospitality. So successful was the hotel in attracting local and interstate travelers that in 1912 the hotel added 105 rooms, bringing the total to 600 rooms, including ten private dining and meeting rooms, and a beautiful Italian Renaissance lobby. Adding air conditioning after World War II placed the hotel in an elite category, making it the first completely air conditioned hotel in the U.S. north of the Mason-Dixon Line.
Like Bates House, the new Claypool attracted not only the famous and fashionable but also the movers and shakers of the labor and political world as well as ordinary Americans. Because of its proximity to the Indiana State Capitol, the hotel became a popular place for legislators. It housed both the Democratic and Republican parties state headquarters, provided housing for the Indianapolis Rotary Club, and on the ninth floor sheltered radio station WIRE.
Henry W. Lawrence, former manager of Bates House and majority owner, manager and president of the Claypool, was active in the Indiana Hotel Keepers Association in the early twentieth century, serving on the Board of Directors, chairing the Finance Committee, and periodically hosting the state meetings at the Claypool.
Mrs. Lawrence, Henry’s wife, as overseer of housekeeping helped the hotel to succeed with high standards of care. Her delight with Oriental rugs was matched only by her hatred of dust and grime. Following her husband’s death (1926), Mrs. Lawrence assumed the responsibilities of proprietor for nearly a dozen years before she died in 1937. Upon her passing, the bulk of her estate including the Claypool Hotel, was left to a Catholic boys school in her hometown of Ogdensburg, NY. In 1943 the hotel became a part of the Affiliated National Hotels Company, of Galveston, Texas.
Frank M. Andrews, architect of the Claypool. Born in Des Moines, Iowa, on 28 January 1867, studied civil engineering at Iowa State University and later took a B.A. degree in architecture from Cornell University in 1888. He practiced his profession first in Chicago, and later in New York City. Andrews designed several state capitols and commercial buildings. He died August 31, 1948. Despite the public’s acclaim of the Claypool as a model of what hotels could and should be like, Andrews was not listed in the second edition (1962) of the American Architects Directory as either a former or deceased member, nor apparently did the American Institute of Architects think the hotel was an outstanding example of significant architecture, for rarely did it mention the building.
David M. Parry was a late nineteenth century industrialist and part owner of the Claypool. His horse-drawn buggies were shipped throughout the U.S. and many countries abroad. A Republican by conviction, he took an active role in politics and in the National Association of Manufacturers (formed in 1895), dressed impeccably and was sparing in words, except when denouncing labor unions.
Also prominent in the Claypool’s history, should be noted: Edward F. Claypool, wealthy businessman from Connersville, whose generosity made possible the building and operation of the Claypool. Financially involved in the defunct Bates House, he subscribed to the building of the Claypool and donated the land for the hotel. In post-Civil War days he was heavily invested in public utilities and later became president of Indianapolis’ First National Bank.
In the 1960s the once elegant Claypool began showing her age, but what to do about the “Old Lady” no one had a ready answer. The solution came in a fire in June 1967, despite earlier assurances that the building was “absolutely fireproof.” The Claypool met its end with a devastating inferno in the pre-dawn hours on 23 June 1967. Investigation revealed that it was arson, started in a fourth floor utility room. All guests were safely evacuated, but the hotel never again opened its doors to guests. It was finally torn down (1969) and was replaced by the Claypool Court, a shopping and office mall.
Sources:
Bodenhamer, David J. and Robert G. Barrows. Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994. Reference Room Collection: F534.I55 1994
Claypool Sketch Book. Indianapolis:
Claypool Hotel, 1939.
General Collection: F534.I55 C52 1939.
Dunn, Jacob Piatt. Greater
Indianapolis..., Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1910.
General Collection: F534.I55 D8 1910
Hyman, Max R., The Journal Handbook of Indianapolis, Indianapolis: Indianapolis Journal Newspaper Co., 1902. Reference Room Collection: F534.I55 J6 1902.
Indianapolis Star, 8 Sept. 1968, Sec. 5, p. 22; 7 Nov. 1971, Sec. B, p. 9; 4 Dec. 1977, Sec. 5, p. 1f.
L.S. Ayres and Company Records
Schrader, Christian, Indianapolis Remembered.... Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau, 1987. General Collection: F534.I55 S37 1987.
Indiana: A New Historical Guide. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1989. Reference Room Collection: F527 .I538 1989.
The collection contains a variety of photographs of both interior and exterior views of the Claypool Hotel and its predecessor the Bates House. The images include views of suites and meeting rooms, and retouched photographs of the facade and interiors. There are group portraits of hotel employees and some banquet groups. A few street views of downtown Indianapolis with the Claypool in sight are also here. The photographs are arranged alphabetically by subject, then chronological. The banquet photographs have captions and these were transcribed and are in quotation marks. The manuscript materials are stored in one oversize folder and contain various printed materials; certificates, citations, proclamations, and signs that were either given to or made for the Claypool hotel.
|
CONTENTS |
CONTAINER |
|
Assembly Hall, 8th floor |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Atrium Cafe |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Atrium Room, large fountain in center of room set with tables and chairs |
Photographs: |
|
Balcony Piazza |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Banquet Group: “Mothers’ Congress Banquet, Claypool Hotel, Indianapolis, Feb’y 20, 1915” [caption written on verso] |
OVB Photographs: |
|
Banquet Group: “Indiana Recruiting Service
Banquet at Claypool Hotel Given by Knights of Columbus, Indpls-Ind. Nov.
30-1919” |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Banquet Group: “Alpha Chi Omego Annual State
Luncheon Eastern Province Convention Riley Room Claypool Hotel Indianapolis
Ind. Feb. 26, ‘21” |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Banquet Group: “Banquet Indiana Christian
Missionary Association, Riley Room, Claypool Hotel, Indianapolis, Indiana.
#1250 Kirkpatrick Photo 1927 12/6/27” |
OVB Photographs: |
|
Banquet Group: “Indiana Democratic Editorial
Ass’n. Claypool Hotel-Indianapolis April 13, 1940” |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Banquet Group: “Indianapolis Star
Breakfast June 25, 1944” |
Photographs: |
|
Banquets, displays of food and centerpieces |
Photographs: |
|
Bates House, 2 story wood frame building |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Bates House, exterior views: 2 story wood frame building n.d., and new stone structure, ca. 1890 |
Photographs: |
|
Chateau Room |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Claypool Hotel, ca. 1910, 1920 |
Photographs: |
|
Claypool Hotel, exterior views, ca. 1910, ca. 1920 |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Claypool Hotel, detail of entrance, exterior views, ca. 1920 |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Claypool Hotel, exterior views, ca. 1920 |
OVB Photographs: |
|
Claypool Hotel employees ca. 1910–1953 |
Photographs: |
|
Claypool Hotel, entrance with signs, 1966 |
OVB Photographs: |
|
Claypool Hotel, photograph illustrations of interiors and Monument Circle, ca. 1920 |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Club Room |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Empire Room |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Firestone Winners Circle, banquet displays of food and tables, 1961 |
Color Photographs: |
|
Florentine Room |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Hallway |
OVA Photographs, |
|
International Association of Convention Bureaus annual board of directors meeting, ca. 1940 |
Photographs: |
|
Kitchen |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Lobby with writing desks |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Main Lobby |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Mezzanine overlooking main lobby |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Mezzanine Parlor |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Moorish Room |
OVB Photographs: |
|
Moorish Room |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Palm Room, 8th Floor Assembly Room |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Parlor B |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Printing Presses |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Riley Room |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Tavern, Coffee Shop |
OVA Photographs, |
|
Manuscript Materials: Certificates, Citations, Governor’s Proclamation, signs, 1940–1962 |
OM 0440, Folder 1 |
For additional information on this collection, including a list of subject headings that may lead you to related materials:
1. Go to the Indiana Historical Society's online catalog: http://opac.indianahistory.org/
2. Click on the "Basic Search" icon.
3. Select "Call Number" from the "Search In:" box.
4. Search for the collection by its basic call number (in this case, P0018).
5. When you find the collection, go to the "Full Record" screen for a list of headings that can be searched for related materials.