By the end of the Civil War, Hot Springs was gaining a reputation as a place where people would go to be healed by water from the thermal springs. There was talk that the area would make a good place for a military hospital.
"There is a pathos for the fallen braves that touches the admiration and sympathy of every American citizen; and if their voices were sounded, they would swell spontaneously from all sections of this great republic in exclamations of honor and respect," Dr. T.J. Reid of Hot Springs wrote in 1874. "Something more tangible and useful is necessary for the poor afflicted wounded and diseased survivors."
In a manuscript about what would become known as the Army & Navy General Hospital at Hot Springs, Fred Cron wrote in the early 1940s: "Dr. Reid and others believed it was the duty of the federal government to build a hospital for soldiers and sailors who had diseases which could be benefited by the Hot Springs waters. They suggested that 20 or 40 acres be set aside for such an infirmary and a national soldiers' home, and that the rest of the Hot Springs Reservation of 1832 be leased for long terms to provide funds to maintain the institution.
"The first real action toward providing such a hospital was House Bill No. 1477, introduced by Rep. M.G. Urner of Maryland on May 5, 1879. The bill provided, among other things, for a national hospital at Hot Springs to be run by medical officers. The reservation and the hot water were to be controlled by an engineer officer from the Army. Nothing ever came of this bill, and the matter slumbered for several years."
Still, Union and Confederate veterans came to Hot Springs for water treatments. Some of the veterans were doctors who would go back and tell their patients about the healing waters of Arkansas. One visitor was former Union Gen. John A. Logan, a senator from Illinois.
"He had come to Hot Springs sick, depressed and discouraged, but with the skill of Dr. A.S. Garnett and the aid of the hot baths, he was able to regain his health," Dr. Francis Scully wrote in his 1966 book Hot Springs, Arkansas, and Hot Springs National Park: The Story of a City and the Nation's Health Resort.
"Dr. Garnett, himself a former Navy surgeon, was an enthusiastic advocate of the military hospital and succeeded in selling the idea to Gen. Logan," Cron wrote. "Upon his return to Washington, Logan, after referring the matter to the appropriate committees, offered an amendment to the Army appropriation bill for fiscal year 1882, providing $100,000 for construction of an Army and Navy hospital to be 'erected on the government reservation at or near Hot Springs.'"
The bill became law on June 30, 1882.
Prior to Logan's return to Washington to introduce the bill, Garnett had enlisted the help of wealthy businessman Samuel Fordyce, who had served under Logan in the Union Army. Fordyce organized an elaborate dinner with a French chef that was held on the second floor of the Palace Bath House, which Fordyce owned. The city's most influential citizens were invited.
Scully wrote: "Logan stated that he believed that this would be an ideal location for an institution of this character, where the healing hot waters could be used as an adjunct to other types of treatment."
On July 5, 1882, the War Department issued an order establishing the Army & Navy General Hospital. The Interior Department gave 24 acres of the park to the War Department the following year for the hospital. A cornerstone was laid in 1883, and five buildings were constructed.
"The central building was the medical headquarters, the two long buildings on either side were the hospital wards with the kitchen and bathhouse nearby," Scully wrote. "The hospital was completed in 1886 and was officially opened in January 1887."
By 1910, the hospital was averaging 93 patients daily. By 1929, that number had soared to more than 235 patients, and there was talk of building a larger facility. That new building was completed in 1933. It was filled to capacity during World War II. In fact, the Eastman Hotel, which had 500 rooms, was turned over to the government in 1942 and used until 1946. By June 1945, there were 1,770 patients in the main hospital and the Eastman annex. The Eastman no longer exists.
In 1943, Army & Navy General Hospital became the arthritis treatment center for the Army. In 1945, more than 800 patients were being treated for arthritis.
The hospital also was designated as a polio treatment center in 1943.
By the 1950s, it had become clear that the federal government wanted to close the facility. Business leaders in Hot Springs worked with Gov. Orval Faubus and the state's congressional delegation to a find a use for the complex. The hospital was turned over to the state to be used as a vocational rehabilitation center. The final day of federal operations was Nov. 30, 1959.
The edifice, which towers over downtown Hot Springs, was in the news in May when it was announced that residential training for the disabled will cease at the Arkansas Career Training Institute. Training will continue in a nonresidential setting across Reserve Street in a former armory. Big institutional settings for people with disabilities have fallen into disfavor in recent years. The institute had promoted itself as one of just eight comprehensive rehabilitation centers in the country and the third largest residential center of its type.
Now, state and local leaders must decide--just as they did 60 years ago--what to do with this historic giant.
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Senior Editor Rex Nelson's column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. He's also the author of the Southern Fried blog at rexnelsonsouthernfried.com.
Editorial on 07/20/2019