Thanks to Syracuse residents Paul and Marlene Pollock, we are all taking a trip back in time to the Spink-Wawasee Hotels heyday in the 1920s and 1930s. Pauls grandmother Elizabeth Pollock was an employee and these snapshots and postcards that have been passed down through the family give an unprecedented glimpse into a bygone era.

The Spink family of Indianapolis built the hotel at Lake Wawasee in 1925 on the location of the former Wawasee Inn and Cedar Beach Club in the popular at that time Spanish Revival style. The family built the Spink Arms Hotel at 401 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis in 1919. It is still standing also.

The Spink-Wawasee Hotel was considered a luxury establishment with fine dining, a casino and big band entertainment. A photo of Al Capone at the Spink-Wawasee is in the Syracuse-Wawasee Historical Museum.

When the Spink family died and the estate sold in 1948, the Crosier Order of the Roman Catholic Church purchased the Lake Wawasee property and used it as a seminary.

It transformed under the Crosier Order into Wawasee Prep in 1965 and became co-ed in the 1970s. Local residents, the Dick Miller family, bought the property after the school closed in 1975 and developed it into the luxury condominium it still is. Dominating the north shore of Lake Wawasee, the landmark building continues to provide fun at the lake for scores of families.