Hampton Inn Indianapolis Downtown Across from Circle Centre (Indianapolis, Indiana)

 hotel, high-rise, Hampton Inn, 1920s construction

105 South Meridian Street
Indianapolis, IN 46225
(317) 261-1200
www.hilton.com/en/hotels/inddthx-hampton-indianapolis-d...

This beautiful hotel housed in the historic Chesapeake building. The hotel features 180 well-appointed guestrooms that offer the perfect place to relax when you're traveling for business or for pleasure. A complimentary continental breakfast bar offering over 45 items is available every morning and freshly brewed coffee, cappuccino, and hot chocolate are also available daily. The hotel provides valet parking, free local calls, free in-room high-speed Internet access, in-room movies, and more. The property also has 24 unique suites and three meeting rooms available for meetings or special events.

Formerly the Big Four Building, it was built for the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway, also known as the Big Four Railroad, the building was located in the Wholesale District to be close to the Big Four Railroad’s freight and passenger operations to the south. When completed, the more than 6,200 railroad employees of the New York Central who lived in Indianapolis, occupied seven floors of the nine-story building. In 1996 it was reconverted and opened as a hotel.

The nine-story building is built of concrete frame, floors, and roof. Rectangular in plan, it is eleven bays wide along East Maryland Street and three bays wide on South Meridian. In contrast to the brown brick, the first two floors are clad in stone with stylized, low relief ornamentation on the second floor. The greatest concentration of ornamentation occurs above the ninth floor with terra-cotta detailing that features fluted and reeded motifs. In placement, texture, and spirit, this ornamentation exhibits features of both the Art Deco and Gothic styles.

Hampton Inn Indianapolis Downtown opened in 1996 and was last renovated in 2018. With 180 rooms, it is the twenty-third-largest hotel in the Indianapolis metropolitan area, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal in 2020.