Retro Indy: For years Marott was Indianapolis’ most luxurious hotel

(A version of this story first appeared in 2020.)

When the Marott Hotel opened at Meridian Street and North Fall Creek Boulevard in 1926, it was a culmination of 30 years planning for George J. Marott.

Born in Daventry, Northamptonshire, England, Marott emigrated to the United States in 1875 at the age of 16 with his parents. He opened a shoe store in 1884 in Indianapolis, using money he earned from his $10 a week salary as a shoe clerk in a store his father operated, according to an obituary in the Indianapolis Star on February 16, 1946.

Eventually one shoe store became several. A consummate businessman, Marott also purchased electric and heating utilities in Kokomo and interurban lines between Kokomo and Marion and Kokomo and Frankfort, though he eventually sold those.

Marott continued to diversify, building the hotel that bears his name. He worked 12 to 15 hours a day all his life, juggling management of the hotel and his shoe business, his obituary said.

The hotel was his pride and joy; it wasn’t just a hotel, it was also a place where Indianapolis’ high society resided just as New York society did at the Waldorf-Astoria and the Plaza Hotel. Booth Tarkington, Meredith Nicholson and widows of Indianapolis’ long-dead tycoons all took up residence.

“I saw in this property,” Marott said, “the opportunity some to erect some kind of a monumental edifice to the city which I have loved so well and as the time draws near for the realization of a dream, I am convinced anew that my dreams to hold this property for the purpose to which it now is dedicated have been fulfilled.” 

Limousines lined the property’s semi-circular drive as visitors in tails and minks arrived to be entertained in the Marott’s Marble Ballroom, Reef Room and Crystal Dining Room.

The hotel guest list over the years was as impressive as the structure itself: Clark Gable, Paul Newman, Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy, Bob Hope, Babe Ruth, Herbert Hoover, Helen Hayes and Lauren Bacall.

In 1932, Winston Churchill, then a member of British Parliament, arrived in Indianapolis by train with his daughter, Diana. They were given a hearty welcome by Indianapolis dignitaries, including Mayor Reginald Sullivan, then spirited away to the Marott Hotel where they stayed.

That evening Churchill spoke before a crowd of 1,200 at the Murat Theater on the “destiny of English-speaking peoples.” Churchill was still nursing wounds suffered in a car accident on New York’s Fifth Avenue just months before and did little Indianapolis sightseeing or socializing, but he was entertained by his fellow countryman, George Marott.

Churchill was so impressed with the hotel that he carried back to England a complete plan of the hotel. Marott and Churchill developed a friendship that lasted until Marott’s death in 1946.

A 1940 Indianapolis Star article noted Marott’s career attracted the attention of numerous authors who wanted to write a book about his life, which he found distasteful. Churchill was the most eminent author he refused. When Churchill returned to England, he sent Marott one of his books — an autobiography as proof of his writing ability. Marott cherished the autographed book, even though the text misspelled his name as “Marrot.”

Marott was also known for his generosity. Over the course of his life, he gave away more than $500,000, according to his obituary. Shortly before his death, he donated his shoe store empire to Butler University and his veteran employees, an Indianapolis Star story on January 27 of that year reported. About 20 years later, the employees bought out Butler.

At the age of 87, Marott died in his apartment in the hotel that bore his name. After flourishing for several decades, the Marott Shoe Company closed its downtown store at 18 East Washington Street in June 1978. A few years later, its remaining suburban stores closed as well.

By the 1970s, the Marott had gone through several owners and become low-income apartments. The Marott got a shot in the arm with extensive renovations, and today the Marott apartments are owned by Van Rooy Companies. The hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.