When Indiana Memorial Union Associate Director Thom Simmons brings guests through the Metz Suite, he likes to tell them it's nothing out of the ordinary.\n"I do tours of the Union," Simmons said, "and I'll say 'This is just a typical suite on a college campus.'"\nBut the suite, which has eight rooms, takes up the entire top floor of the Union hotel, houses an extravagant collection of expensive artifacts and is open to VIPs only, is anything but typical. \nEven though it's only occupied about 30 nights of the year -- by guests ranging from Mikhail Gorbachev to Richard Nixon to Dick Enberg to the Dalai Lama -- those wishing to pay the $500-a-night price tag are usually referred to the trustees for approval.\nWhat began as a retirement home for an IU alumnus and successful Chicago surgeon has since turned into a plush lodging for guests of the University and an ongoing tribute to Dr. Arthur Metz.
Dr. Metz\nAfter growing up in northern Indiana at the turn of the century, Metz graduated from IU in 1909. He went on to receive a medical degree from the University of Chicago in 1911 and ultimately became one of the most prominent surgeons in the country.\nBy 1928, Metz was chief surgeon and president of Washington Boulevard Hospital in Chicago, according to an online IU Art Museum piece on Metz by Karen York. Metz held a private practice in Chicago for more than 20 years and served as personal physician for the Wrigley family, the Chicago Cubs and two major railroad companies, among others. \nBut in addition to becoming a successful surgeon, Metz developed a passion for the arts, collecting artifacts and big game hunting. \nAccording to York's story, a stint in the army in World War I in France may have introduced Metz to the Parisian art scene. Meanwhile, a year-long position as team surgeon on a hunting expedition to Africa contributed to Metz's love of safaris. Metz even had a zebra-skin rug and a lion-skin rug with the head still intact. Those have since been moved to the Mathers Museum, Simmons said. \n"These were all parts of his collection," Simmons said. "It was an era where rich gentlemen or gentlemen of means would do the African safari and come back with trophies. Some people (think), 'How could anyone do this to innocent animals?' But it reflects a different era."
Building the suite\nBy 1959, the affluent Dr. Metz was thinking about retirement at about the same time his alma mater's memorial union was building an extensive addition. That addition became the IMU hotel and the sixth floor became Metz's personal residence -- with enough space to house his many possessions and a balcony view that, today, reaches across IU's campus, west into the city, north to the stadium and east to the Metz Carillon atop Jordan Avenue, also named for Dr. Metz.\nMetz never spent much time in his retirement home. He returned to IU, but died a few years later in 1963. That left his posh apartment as office space for the IU Foundation.
Housing a collection\nWhen the sixth floor opened up again in 1974, IU officials wanted to honor Metz's legacy.\n"The idea was to make this a sort of VIP suite to house those types of persons," Simmons said. "It was developed in Metz's honor."\nAnd honor his memory it does. After stepping off the elevator and unlocking the outside door, visitors to the suite are greeted by a dark hallway with an extra-wide, brown wooden door beneath a small sign that says "Metz Suite." The hallway takes off to the right to the two bedrooms. But the main room behind the wooden doors is the most extravagant.\nThe massive space has floor-to-ceiling windows and an extra-high ceiling. The room is lined on all sides by Metz's collection -- an array of bronze Roman figures atop a locked glass case, a large portrait of Metz above the fireplace, cases containing a rhino's foot, a baseball signed by Cubs players and books ranging from Metz's early textbooks to ones about African safaris. The large wooden gun case is empty, but the work Metz did with the guns is present in the animal heads lining the room -- from the water buffalo to the elk to the gazelle head to a variety of others on the walls.\n"He was what you would call a man's man," said Rand McKamey, preparator for the IMU. "He liked hunting, went on a couple of safaris. He was fond of the Romans. There was a great upsurge in Greco-Roman artifacts at the time he was alive."\nNeither McKamey nor Simmons knows exactly what the collection is worth, but Simmons said individual bronzes can run from $10,000 to $50,000 apiece. \n"They're not priceless," Simmons said. "But they're \nirreplaceable." \nThe adjoining kitchenette displays Metz's china in a glass case, some inscribed with his initials, others displaying safari scenes upon plates. There is also a sitting room, with more bronzes, couches and a large wooden clock Metz used in his Chicago office, in addition to the two bedrooms.
VIPs only\nFrom commencement speakers to candidates for top University jobs, the suite has been a temporary home for countless individuals through the years. Members of the Kennedy family stayed there for a wedding in the 1970s and the prime minister of Malaysia stopped in when IU gave him an honorary doctorate. \nGorbachev stayed in the room when he gave a Union Board lecture at the IU Auditorium in 1997. Things got a little dicey, Simmons said, when an emergency test of the breaker shut off power to Gorbachev's room and the rooms of his security team, who stayed on the floor beneath him. \n"I don't know whether it's true or not, but on TV, when they're making these big assaults, they throw off all the lights," Simmons said. "At that time, the stairwell door was locked, so the security people ran up the steps and couldn't get in. They were getting a little anxious -- 'Was this an assassination attempt or something like that?' And it all happened at midnight, when there was no one here to take care of it."\nThe room is also often used by the trustees for receptions and the president of the board has access to it -- whether in town for a meeting or a football game.\nJohn Walda, who was president of the board from 1994 to 2001, stayed in the suite and said it's well-known among the trustees. \n"It's an astounding room, full of wonderful history," Walda said. "Dr. Metz was a great benefactor for Indiana University and did a lot of interesting things in his life. It's like staying in a museum."\nWalda hasn't stayed there recently, but he said he hopes to one day return.\n"You can make a request for it," he said. "I'd love to stay there again."
Remembering Dr. Metz\nAlthough not everyone can stay in the room and tours aren't offered, Simmons said the suite does fulfill its chief goal of paying tribute to Metz. \nEach fall, the IMU holds a dinner in the Tudor Room to congratulate winners of the Metz Scholarship. Of the 100 or so people who attend the dinner, Simmons said he takes a group of about 25, including the student winners, to see the suite. \n"They're usually awed by it -- just the softness of the carpet if nothing else," he said. "They're usually very appreciative and enjoy getting a little of the flavor of the person who funded their scholarship."\nSimmons said he's proud to have it and not just because it's in the IMU. \n"It's one of these special rooms," Simmons said. "I think it's a real Indiana University treasure; more than just a treasure of the Indiana Memorial Union"
