Culver Inn Motel  

1922 - plat of the area This area was a part of the Lake View Hotel and Jungle Hotel

In 1959 the Culver Inn motels were built and they officially opened in 1960. It sits partially on property of the Jungle Hotel on the lake front on Aubeenaubee Bay, They still stands today. It was a 64 unit motel built by the Culver Inn/Maxinkuckee Inn, Inc., a wholly owned taxable, subsidiary of the Culver Educational Foundation and ran as a part of the Culver Inn.

By Bob Hartman:

In the early 1950s, the Academy architect W. B. Ittner of St. Louis presented plans for a motel on the bluff just west of the fish ponds. As envisioned, it stretched along much of the shoreline enabling each unit to have a lake view. It proved too ambitious a project and the trustees settled on the less expensive motel which opened in 1960.

1959 - Aug. 26 - Culver Military Academy's New 64 Motor Lodge Now under construction.

This is the architect's drawing showing the 64 room motor lodge that will be built at Culver Militry Academy on the shores of Lake Maxinkuckee, adjacent to the Culver Inn. Construction will start immediately and is expected to be completed for occupancy this fall. The modern, air-conditioned lodge is designed for persons visiting students at the Academy , vacaitioners, convention groups, and others wishing to stay in one of the MIddle west's resort areas on the famous Culver campus.

Big Motor Lodge to be erected By The Academy

64-Room Building Airconditioned

A completely modern 6t4-room motor lodge will be built at Culver Military Academy on the shores of Lake Maxinkuckee, Maj. Gen. Delmar T. Spivey, superintendent, announced today.

Construction will start immediately and will be completed for occupance this fall, Genreral Spivey said.

The Complete units will be fabricated by National Homes Corporation of Lafayette and will be erected by Price & Price, also of Lafayette.

The lodge, which will consiste of four units of eight rooms each and two untis of 16 rooms each, will contain the most modern features for the comfort of guests.

Fully Air-conditioned

All rooms will be inidividually air-conditioned, carpeted, equipped with televison and will contain twin beds with innerspring mattresses.

Interior dimension of rooms, including bathroom, will be 16 by 22 feet. Many of the rooms will have connecting doors for converting them to suites for families.

The one story untis will contain vitreous enameled aluminim shingles and siding with brick siding sections at itnervals.

The lodge will be situated immediately to the south and west of the new Eugene C.Eppley Auditorium and west of the Culver Inn. Hard surfaced driveways will enable guests to drive and park automobiles adjacent to their rooms.

The entire area will be completely landscaped to take full advantage of the natural beauty of the site.

The Culver Inn nearby

The lodge will provide facilities in addition to those of the Culver Inn, also owned by the Academy, and managed by Edwin W. Dybing. The dining and other services of the Inn, which is located approximately 200 yards east of the motor lodge site will be readily available to lo the guests. The management and service personnel of the Inn will operate the lodge.

The new lodge will provide excellent accomodations for parents and friends visiting boys at the Academy and Culver SUmmer Schools. General Spivey said.

It also will provide an excellent location for conventions and doe individuals wishinf to vacation in one of the Midwest's finest resot areas.

Popular Covention Site

The facilities of the Academy are available when not in use by students for conventions and for individual guets. These inculde rhe 1,530 seat auditorium and 200 seat meeting room of the Eugene C. Eppley Auditorium, classrooms for small groups, complete visual aids equipment, and such recreatioanl facilities as a nine-hole golf course, 15 tennes courts, swimming beach, boats, bowling alleys and many others.

The Culver Inn dining room can accomodate groups of 200 or more, General Spivey said.

The Academy and Summer Schools are operated by the non-profit Culver Educational Foundation.

The Academy is a college preparatory school enrolling 800 boys from September until June. The SUmmer Schools provide recreation, training and education courses for 1,500 boys ages 9 1/2 to 18 for eight weeks each July and August.

TO BUILD LODGE - Culver , Ind. (UPl) - Officials at Culver Military Academy announced today that a modem 64-room motor lodge will be built along Lake Maxinkuckee for the use of parents and friends of Culver students, as well as vacationing tourists. The lodge is to be completed and ready for use by this fall. - 27 Aug 1959 Tipton Tribune

1959 - Sep 35 - Inn Addition to Be Ready in Month

Construction on the six new units of the Culver Inn continues this week. The first units of the 64-room addition will be ready for occupancy in less than two months.



The first rooms for rent in the new 64-room motor lodge that is an addition to the Culver Inn will be ready for occupancy in early November, according to th estimate of Academy Business Manager, Col. William Covinton.

Contracts were signed late in August, and construction started immediately. The units were created by National Homes Corporation and being erected by Price and Price of Lafayette, Ind.

Concrete slabs on which the buildings are to stand were completed Tuesday. Skeletions for six buildings, including roof _ and sidewalls have been completerd.

Elecrical wor k was started - week. The rough plumbings to each building was completed _ its concrete slab was laid. Each building will hace a self-contained heating and air conditioning unit, with individual controls in each room. Each room will also have a telephone, as _ as a televison set.

A one- way loop drive will provide access to the units from the Auditorium roadway, with parking at each of the units for its occupants. The central area between the units will be landscaped.

When the units are ready for occupancy, North Lodge, presently used by the Inn, will be razed. At the end of the academic year, when East Lodge is vacated by the Fifth Class, it will also be razed, Next year the Fifth class will be housed in the West Lodge, and the area now occupied by the North and East Lodges will be landscaped.

1959 - Sep 30 - The Culver Military Academy's 64-room motor lodge, adjoining the venerable Culver Inn on the campus will be ready for early November occupancy, according to Col. William E. Covington Jr., business manager of the famed college preparatory school. The units were fabricated by the National Homes Coporation of Lafayette and are being erected by Price & Price also of Lafayette - CUlver Citizen

In prepreperation for the motel the site had to be cleared of existing buildings

1959 Dec 16 - Academy's North Lodge Being Razed; Home Sold and Moved
From the CMA Messinger

North Lodge has been sold to Gerald Lyons, a member of the Academy's custodial staff. He will raze the buliding and salvafe all useable items.

The The Frank Walaitis residence, faculty home nearest the Culver Inn's new facility, has been sold. It will be moved by the new owners to a location on the south side of town...

The Smith home will be torn down for salvage...




1960 - May 11 - House Movers Rough on Highways This old house, in the process of being moved seveal miles these past several weeks from an Academy location to a new site of West Shore Drive (Old Road 17) near the House of Treasures, is doing a pretty thorough job at beating up the highways en route. Citizens are rightly asking: "Who is responsible for making the necessary repairs?" It was moved to 819 West Shore Drive.

Sixty-four Motel Erected

New executive manager Wilbert Schutte (left) and manager James Schall pose before the lake side of the nearly completed, sixty-four room motel which theu will administrate for Stouffer's Management Food service.



A new, modern, sixty-four room motel is being completed on the shores of Lake Maxinkuckee. It was fabricated by National Homes Corportation and erected by Price and Price of Lafayette, Indiana.

The National Homes Corportation is the largest maker of pre-built constructions in the world. The use of their product has permitted the Academy to raise the new motel in a record breaking time of three months.

The motel which consists of two buildings of sixteen standard rooms and four buildings of eight deluxe rooms, contains the most modern features for the comfort of guests

The rooms, all on one level, have indiviudual thermostatically controlled heating and air-conditioning, carpeting, telephonea, and all new furnishings including television and twin beds with innerspring mattresses.

Inerior dimensions of rooms, including bathroom, are at least sixteen by twenty-two feet. Thirty-two of te rooms have connecting doors converting them to suites for families. Parkign is provided immediately outside the doors of the rooms.

In addition, deluxe rooms are available with a slightly larger size, a dressing room (with additional lavatory), and a small patio, accessible through sliding glass doors. As these are the buildings facing the Gignilliat Quadrangle, the Eugene C. Eppley Theater-auditorium and the lake, the view though these doors is quite beautiful.

The one-story buildings have vitreous enemeled, aluminium shingles and siding with brick veneer at intervals.

The new motel is located in a grove of trees one hundred yards southwest of the Eppley Theater with its entertainment and lecture facilities. It is two hundred yards west (beyond the Fifth class play area) of the present Culver Inn with its dining and snack facities, and is about the same distance from the Gignilliat Quadrangle of class buildings (southwest corner of the campus... - Culver Alumnus magazine from fall, 1959

Golf carts were pressed into service at the motel for the first time during Mothers Weekend. Inn employee Eli Brock delvivers linen to one of the motel units. - CMA Messenger newsletter, Jan-Dec., 1961

When the Girls Academy started in 1971 the motel was used to house all 77 girls that attended that year. It was called North Lodge. The second year a second motel unit was converted to house 24 additional girls. This was called Indian Trail Lodge. These rooms are now used to house married faculty and staff during the summer programs and as a place for visiting parents to stay during “winter school

2013 - Aerial view of all 6 Units

The Culver Motel Units 5 & 6 were demolished the week of March 24th 2014

2017 - Aerial views of the remainig 4 Units.

2017 - Mar 21 - Last of the units to come down - coming down are the back units that do not sit on the lake front

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A last look at the lake front units soon to be demolished

And they are gone.... Palmer House ~~ Maxinkuxkee Inn ~~ Culver Inn ~~ Culver Motels