Stay & Play
1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa
Historic landmark in the Arkansas Ozarks
by Randy Mink
Like the artsy mountain village of Eureka Springs itself, the 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa has a personality that borders on the quirky side.
This historic hilltop “castle in the air,” once billed as the “premier resort hotel of the Ozarks,” originally catered to the “carriage set.” Its affluent guests enjoyed afternoon teas, dances in the ballroom, and sports like tennis, shuffleboard and bowling.
Many of today’s guests come to soak in the genteel, yesteryear vibe. Others come for supernatural encounters, as the Crescent has been called “America’s Most Haunted Hotel.” Indeed, since its inception in 1886, the majestic limestone building has played host to inexplicable phenomena. Countless guests have reported apparitions and unexplained noises, like the nurse with her gurney wandering the halls and the boy bouncing his ball in the dead of night.
Talk about a hotel with character. What fun it is roaming the warped floors of the dim, high-ceilinged corridors. Guests encounter cockeyed door frames, scratched woodwork, peeling paint, chipped plaster and old-fashioned radiators. Each room has its own configuration.
While I didn’t witness anything creepy, I did wonder why, on stays a year apart, I got assigned both times to Room 219. (And I was a bit nervous being next to 218, or Michael’s Room, the most paranormally active—and most requested—room.) My furniture included a rocking chair, a beautiful armoire and a blemished dresser that looked like it had been there for decades. One wall consisted of exposed brick and mortar. The mattress, pillows and plush towels were comparable to those found in any fine hotel. Other amenities included a refrigerator, coffeemaker and television. The bathroom sparkled, though the tub and sink were down a few steps from the toilet-in-the-closet near my bed.
My spacious balcony afforded views of the garden, vast woodlands and St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church. The fourth-floor pizzeria and cocktail bar also have outdoor perches that showcase the Ozarks’ splendor.
Breakfast is served in the Crystal Dining Room, the former ballroom, a cavernous space with walnut walls and crystal chandeliers. For dinner it becomes La Cena, an Italian restaurant.
In the lobby, you may find Jasper, a black cat with white chest and paws, perhaps by the vintage organ. He is one in a long line of resident cats.
For recreation, guests enjoy the outdoor pool, yard games, hatchet throwing and BB gun shooting.
On nightly ghost tours, you learn about businessman Norman Baker, who bought the building in 1937 and turned it into a cancer hospital, a clinic touted as a place “Where Sick Folks Get Well.” But the shady “doctor,” who claimed to have the cure for cancer, was convicted of fraud and the hospital closed in 1940.
The eerie tour’s last stop is the “morgue,” an area that long ago served as the hotel’s kitchen and later the hospital’s autopsy room. On display are the autopsy table and walk-in cooler where Baker kept cadavers and body parts. Shelves contain jars of human tissue, medical specimens (perhaps tumors) discovered in 2019 during an archaeological dig on the hotel grounds. They apparently had been surgically removed from patients.
The ghost tour is a must for any Eureka Springs visitor wishing to learn the secrets behind the Crescent Hotel’s grand facade.
