Terre Haute House - From Prairie House To Terre Haute House

From Prairie House To Terre Haute House

The first Terre Haute House was built by prominent early Terre Hautean Chauncey Rose, who called it “The Prairie House” because it was located “in the prairie” several blocks east of the village. Rose operated this original hotel from 1838 to 1841. When federal funding for continued construction of the National Road dried up in 1840 and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who supervised construction of the highway, departed the community, the hotel was closed. In the meantime, historical information seems to indicate that the hotel was turned into a boarding house.

With the anticipated opening of the Wabash and Erie Canal at Terre Haute in 1849, Rose reopened the hotel that year and, in 1855, renamed it “The Terre Haute House.” He also added a fourth floor of guest rooms at that time.

Rose, who by 1866 was tired of the hotel business, considered donating the property for educational purposes. This didn't sit well with some members of the local business community, so they formed the Terre Haute Hotel Co. and purchased the Terre Haute House from Rose.

Two more ownership changes transpired in the 1870s. In late 1888, Charles Baur, brother of Jacob Baur, founder of Liquid Carbonics Manufacturing Company which managed the hotel after the second Terre Haute Hotel Company acquired it from the Estate of William Tuell in March 1888, leased the hotel.

Eventually, Crawford Fairbanks purchased the hotel and property, and promised to demolish the existing structure and build a new hotel — on a much grander scale — on the site. It would be left to his heirs, however, to see this promise through to its completion following Fairbanks' death in 1924. Although the decision was made to go ahead with the project in 1925, work would not begin until early 1927.

Following the demolition of the old hotel, work began on the new Terre Haute House in the spring of 1927. It opened on July 2, 1928 to great fanfare and high hopes. Fred & Harry Van Orman, Inc., a Chicago-based hotel management company owned at the time by E.L. Wenzel, took over the new hotel's operations and Wenzel himself became the new Terre Haute House's manager.