The Crescent Hotel

Construction -

Built by the Eureka Springs Improvement Company and the Frisco Railroad, the hotel was designed by Isaac L. Taylor, a well known Missouri architect who had designed a number of famous buildings in St.Louis. Twenty-seven acres at the north end of West Mountain was chosen for the hotel’s majestic location overlooking the valley.

It was an important time in Eureka Springs’ history as the “healing waters” of the Ozarks had become well known across the nation. People from near and far were swarming to the area in hopes of curing their ailments and easing their pains. The developers of the Crescent Hotel and Spa planned to take advantage of these travelers by building the most luxurious resort in the country.

Numerous stonemasons were brought in from Ireland to being construction in 1884. Due to the density of the magnesium limestone used to build the hotel, special wagons were constructed to move the massive pieces of stone from the quarry site on the White River. Designed in an electric array of architectural styles, the masons built 18-inch walls, a number of towers, overhanging balconies and a massive stone fireplace in the lobby. In the end, the hotel cost $294,000 to build, an extremely extravagant amount at that time.

On May 20, 1886, the Crescent Hotel opened it’s doors, among a midst of fan fair. The local Eureka Springs Times Echo Calle dit “America’s most luxurious resort hotel”. Notables from across the country attended the grand opening, which included a gala ball, complete with a full orchestra and a banquet dinner for 400 people. Offering large, airy rooms with exquisite furnishings, a dining room that once seated more than 500 people, and outside amenities that included a pool, tennis courts, and croquet, among the beautiful landscape of flowers gardens, winding boardwalks and gazebos, the opulence of the hotel was unmatched on that time.

Immediately, the well-to-do of the nation began to flock to the luxurious resort hotel as liveried footmen met them at the Frisco Depot before transporting them to the inn. Once there, the guests could not only enjoying the healing waters of the spa, but also a stable of 100 sleek-coated horses, tea dances in the afternoon and elaborate parties every evening with a full in-house orchestra.

However, the prosperity was not to last. After the turn of the century people began to realize that the acclaimed “healing waters” didn't have the curative powers that the hotel and city were known for.

Crescent College -

In 1908, the hotel was opened as the Crescent College and Conservatory for Young Women and served as an exclusive academy for wealthy ladies. During the summer it still catered to the tourist crowd, but the money it made was not enough to keep the hotel in business. The costs of running, heating and repairing the place were so overwhelming that they were not ever offset by the staggering tuition cost. The school closed in 1924 and then reopened briefly from 1930 to 1934 as a junior college.

By the 1920’s, the automobile was transforming Arkansas into a vacation state. One estimate even claimed that nearly half a million people drove to the Ozarks for vacations in 1929 because of this, there were a number of businesses that leased the Crescent Hotel as a summer resort after the school closed down.

Baker Hospital -

In 1937, a man named Norman Baker arrived in Eureka Springs and bought the aging hotel for the purpose of opening a cancer hospital and health resort. Advertising miracle cures that required neither surgery nor painful extensive tests, the Baker Hospital alleged that it’s patients would walk away from the “resort” cancer free.

However, what was unknown to the many desperate patients who flocked to the hospital was that Norman Baker’s “miracle” was nothing more than a scam that he had been purporting on unsuspecting patients for years. The man had absolutely no medical training and had been convicted in Iowa in 1936 for practicing medicine without a license. Furthermore, the American Medical Association had condemned the many elixirs that were sold for a number of different ailments, including cancer. While operating the “hospital”, Baker was being investigated by federal authorities and in 1939 was finally arrested for mail fraud. One US Postal Inspector estimated that Baker had made as much as $500,000 per year, selling his “miracle elixirs” through the mail while in Eureka Springs.

Baker was convicted to serve a four year sentence in Leavenworth. In 1944, Baker was released and moved to Florida, where he lived until his death in 1958 from Cirrhosis, a condition in which the liver doesn't function properly due to damage to long-term liver tissue being replaced with scar tissue.

Vacancy -

During the war years of 1940 to 1946, the beautiful building once again sat empty. However, in 1946, the hotel was purchased by four Chicago businessmen who began to restore the old hotel to it’s former glory. Though never at the level of it’s first days in the late 1800’s, the hotel once again began to thrive. Unfortunately, tragedy struck in 1967, when a fire swept through the fourth floor of the south wing and much of it was destroyed.

Over the next several years the hotel passed through several hands as repairs and more restorations were made, but hotel was never fully restored to it’s original elegance. However, this all changed in 1997, when the historic inn was purchased by Marty and Elise Roenigk. In May 1997, the couple announced, “In five years, we pledge to have this grand lady of the Ozarks back to where she was 100 years ago” but, Ozark residents, having heard this promise before, were skeptical.

Renovation -

In 1997, the Roenigk’s began to rebuild the spas. That first year, a 6,500 square foot “New Moon Spa” opened which included Vichy showers, a hydrotherapy tub, sauna, message and therapy tables, tanning beds and exercise equipment. The next major project was to restore the hotel’s skyline which had been destroyed in the fire. Costing well over a million dollars, the 3,500 square foot penthouse, original center observation tower and the 200-pound, 24-foot tall crescent moon weathervane was restored.

In the meantime, restorations of the guest rooms, lounges, electrical and plumbing, and landscaping were also going on. On September 6, 2002, the Roenigk’s bold announcement became a reality. After 5 million dollars in renovations, the grand hotel had been fully restored to it’s original glory.

Hauntings -

Staff members receive frequent reports from overnight guests of strange things happening in their rooms or in the hallways. Room 424 has had several visitations but the most famous haunted room is 218. Several guests and employees have encountered strange sounds and sensations in that room. Doors have slammed shut and some people claim to have been shaken awake at night, only to find nobody else in the room. One man, a salesman, was asleep in room 218 one night when his shoulder was violently shaken back and forth. He awakened just long enough to hear footsteps hurry across the floor, but saw nobody in the room.

Who this particular ghost may be is unknown, although it’s commonly believed to be the spirit of the man who was killed during the hotel’s original construction. His body was said to have fallen just about where room 218 is currently located. A story of the hotel has it that the wife of a past owner stayed in the room. At one point, in the middle of the night, she ran screaming from the room, claiming she had seen blood splattered all over the walls. Several staff members rushed up to the room but found no blood or anything out of the ordinary. Could the spectral blood have been connected to the fallen construction worker? Or perhaps an operating room from Dr.Baker’s days at the hospital?

Another ghost of the hotel is that of a distinguished looking man with a mustache and beard, dressed in old-fashioned, formal clothing. He seems to favor the lobby and a bar that is decorated in the style of the victorian era. People who claim they have talked to the man but he never responds, only sits there and then vanishes. In an interview, a staff member recounted an odd experience with the silent ghost; “ During the summer, we had two auditors work for us because we’re so busy. One of these men left the front desk to get a drink from the bar, after it was closed. He told me that he saw a man sitting on a barstool, staring straight ahead. He didn’t say anything and didn’t move. Our guy left to get his partner, who was still at the front desk. They came back and spoke to the man. They thought he was drunk. When the man again didn’t respond, the two auditors decided to leave him alone and go back to work. As they looked back over their shoulders on their way out of the bar, they saw that the barstool was now empty. The man was nowhere In the room. One of them started searching for the man, he looked around the lobby and everywhere in that area. The auditor who was looking around went over to the steps. The man from the bar was on the second floor landing, peering down at him. He went up but when he reached the second floor landing, something pushed him back down again.”

It’s possible that the era of Baker’s Hospital may have left the greatest ghostly impression on the hotel. In July 1987, a guest claimed that she saw a nurse pushing a gurney down the hallway in the middle of the night. The nurse reached the wall and then vanished. It was later learned that a number of people had witnessed the same apparition, the exact same way. An apparition that Is believed to be Norman Baker himself has been spotted around the old recreation room, near the foot of the stairs on the first floor. Those who have seen him say that he looks lost, first going one way and then the other. He is reported to be wearing a purple shirt and lavender tie.

Some time back, an antique switchboard form the days of the hospital was finally removed because of all the problems it caused. A staff member explained; “In the summer we would get phone calls on the switchboard from the basement recreation room. There was no-one on the other end of the line because the room was unused and remained locked. We would check it out and find the phone off the hook. There was only one way in or out of that room and the key was kept in the front desk.” The same staff member checked out the recreation one night after receiving a call from the switchboard. He found the phone on the hook, but he still maintains that he felt another presence in the room. He locked the door and went back upstairs but, within five minutes the switchboard buzzer went off again, indicating that a call was coming from the same room he just left.

To go along with all the stories, accounts and experiences, the hotel even has a legendary ghost photo from room 202. Nobody knows who took it, or why, but the photo contains a misty figure slouching in the closet of the room. What makes the hotel such a haunted location? Are memories from the past somehow stored there, replaying themselves over and over again on a regular basis to the fear and delight of the living? Or are the deeds of the past simply revisiting the present, reminding us that history is never really forgotten?

2017 Story Update -

On June 11, 2017, late Saturday night, a man fell to his death from the hotel's fourth floor staircase. William Thomas, 62, was from Webb City, Missouri. Emergency responders were called out shortly after 11pm and transported Thomas to Eureka Springs Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Police Chief Thomas Achord said, “The man walked out of the bar on the fourth floor and fell over the railing at the top of the staircase. We known he had been in the bar, and we know his wife was with him.” However, according to employees of the hotel and security footage, Thomas was alone at the time he fell.

2019 story update -

A news article posted on April 1, 2019 stated the following.

A few months ago the first bottle was discovered behind the hotel. Tour manager Keith Scales noticed the bottles resemblance to a old Baker Hospital poster. In the 1960’s the bottles were dumped but the current hotel mangers didn’t know that meant they were dumped right behind the hotel.

The Arkansas Archeological Survey, which is part of the University of Arkansas System, began the dig last week. “We realized that a lot of the literature mentioned formulas that had colors like the bottles that were recovered, so we were able to make ties to Norman Baker’s use of the facility as a hospital.” Said Micheal Evans, a UAF assist archaeologist. Also found, was a real of film and a bone saw. In the future, the hotel will make the recovered bottles and the dig site part of their tour.

Photos -

Photo I took when I stayed at the hotel or the original fireplace

Photo I took from the top of the staircase

The room I stayed in, room 2018, the most haunted room in the hotel

Photo I took of the view from the bar at the top of the hotel

The morgue

Freezer where they held cadavers, which, if you go on a ghost tour, you can actually be locked in with all the lights off.

Some bottles of specimens that were recovered in the dig near the hotel, believed to be from the Baker Hospital era