Notre Dame plans $32M expansion of campus hotel

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The University of Notre Dame is planning a $32 million renovation and expansion of its landmark Morris Inn hotel.

School officials say the project will give the building finished in 1952 a Gothic look more closely matching the nearby law school and other campus buildings.

Plans are for the hotel’s south wing to be demolished and replaced, with a new 300-seat ballroom built on the north end. The South Bend Tribune reports that the hotel will go from its current 92 guest rooms to nearly 140 rooms.

A $15 million donation toward the project is coming from South Bend philanthropist Ernestine Raclin and her family. Her parents gave the $1 million gift that funded the hotel’s construction.

Raclin says her parents would have liked the renovation and expansion plan.