Carl Fisher and the Omni Severin Hotel

By Sigur Whitaker
 
Carl Fisher just couldn't sit still.
 

Before Carl Fisher began building luxury hotels on Miami Beach, he and Jim Allison were investors in the Severin Hotel, a luxury hotel in Indianapolis. It continues to operate as the Omni Severin Hotel in downtown Indianapolis.
 
The hotel was the brainchild of Henry Severin, Jr., the heir to a wholesale grocery store empire. He envisioned a hotel near the train station catering to affluent railroad passengers and identified a property within two blocks of Union Station. Severin hired local architects Vonnegut & Bohn to design the building. The lead architect was Kurt Vonnegut, Sr., father of American author Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. The hotel was designed in the Beaux Arts style. At a cost of $1 million, the hotel was twelve stories high and had 400 rooms. Amenities included three elevators, private baths, and forced chilled air. It was constructed of reinforced concrete with 12-inch-thick red brick making it the first fire-proof building in Indiana. The first two floors were clad in Bedford limestone. The first two floors were public rooms featuring a marble staircase and crystal chandeliers in the lobby. The roof had a pavilion and terrace with views of the city.
 
The Severin Hotel opened on August 23, 1913. It was leased to Harry B. Gates and Richard H. McClellan. The formal opening was a dinner, which according to the Indianapolis News, was attended by thousands. Harry Gates was the president of the hotel and Carl Fisher was the vice president.
 
The Severin was an important addition to Indianapolis along with an expansion of the Claypool Hotel and the Washington Hotel which opened later in 1913.  When it opened, Indianapolis was fourth in hotel capacity in the United States, led only by New York, Chicago, and Philadelphia. This meant that Indianapolis could accommodate 10,000 persons and could handle a national convention. It was a turnaround from the late 1890s when Indianapolis was regarded as a poor hotel town by travelers. The Indianapolis Star described the hotel situation in Indianapolis prior to opening of the Severin as “… there were only a few hotels here, and that in comparison to the Severin they appeared not only hopelessly inadequate, but almost crude in their lack of accommodations,”
 
The hotel was bought in 1915 by William A. Atkins. At the time of his death in 1958, it was in the Atkins Charitable Trust which had four members: the Purdue University Foundation, The Boys Club of Indianapolis, Associated Colleges of Indiana, and the James Whitcomb Riley Memorial Foundation.
 
When train traffic declined in the mid-20th century, the hotel faced lower demand and became a shadow of its former self. Its closing was marked by a final dinner for 300 members of the Indiana Democrat Club.  It went through several ownership groups including Warren Atkinson who purchased the hotel in December 1967 and changed its name to the Atkinson Hotel. He planned to spend $2.5 million to return the hotel to its former glory. Part of the interior was gutted down to the steel beams to make the rooms larger. After completion of the renovation, it had 236 guest rooms.  In 1979, Atkinson defaulted on several million dollars of loans and the property was transferred to Riviere Realty Trust and subsequently sold to East Park Realty of Jackson, Mississippi.
 
In 1984, James Revel and three other Indianapolis businessmen purchased the Atkinson Hotel with a plan to renovate the property with a cost estimated between $10 and $11 million.  In 1986, the hotel was sold to Indianapolis based Mansur Development Corporation which partnered with Omni Hotels and Resorts. A $40 million renovation including adding two 13 story wings. The renovation included restoring the ornate railings above the lobby which were found in a barn about 30 miles away.
 
In January 1990 after a two-year renovation, the hotel was reopened as the Omni Severin Hotel with 423 hotel rooms, and 16,000 square feet of meeting space. The ballroom and banquet area on the 13th floor were replaced by nine penthouses overlooking the city.  At the time, it was Indianapolis’ fourth largest hotel.

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