Built in 1902, West Baden Springs Hotel's 200-foot free-span atrium dome became known as the Eighth Wonder of the World and retained that distinction until the resort hotel casino closed after the stock market crash of 1929. After 1929, the building served many purposes, including a Jesuit seminary and a small technical college, but gradually declined into disrepair, virtual abandonment, and the threat of demolition. When two six-story outer wall sections collapsed, Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, now Indiana Landmarks, sponsored emergency stabilization to stop further deterioration. In 1996, Landmarks bought the property and later resold it, transferring the difficult restoration effort to the late Bloomington entrepreneur Bill Cook. The Cook family restored West Baden Springs Hotel and the equally grand Historic French Lick Springs Hotel as a world-class resort and as the foundation of the Springs Valley renaissance.