I've long been a fan of old hotels. When I was a boy, my father would take me to a trade show in Dallas each November at the Baker Hotel. With its doormen and elevator operators, I considered it the height of sophistication.
The hotel closed and the building in downtown Dallas was imploded years ago, but I still use a wooden hanger from there and remember eating my first raw oyster at its restaurant, the Baker's Dozen.
Trips to Hot Springs back then meant a stop at the Arlington Hotel to pick up a copy of that day's Chicago Tribune. Sometimes lunch in the basement coffee shop followed.
These days, one of my favorite things to do is sit in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel at Memphis and people-watch. Greenville, Miss., writer David Cohn was right when he said in 1935: "The Mississippi Delta begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg. . . . If you stand near its fountain in the middle of the lobby, where the ducks waddle and the turtles drowse, you will see everybody who is anybody in the Delta."
I admit my bias when it comes to hotels. When I think of iconic Arkansas structures, most of them--whether it's the state Capitol in Little Rock or Old Main in Fayetteville--are in the public or nonprofit domain. When it comes to privately owned buildings, the two most iconic structures are the Arlington and the Crescent Hotel at Eureka Springs.
I'm not alone. I've been writing a blog since 2009, and the posts that have received the most responses have been about the Arlington. I again heard from a lot of people in late October when this newspaper ran an article headlined: "Plans touted for Hot Springs hotel: After years-long wait, historic structure's restoration to begin."
No plans, mind you, have been announced for desperately needed room renovations. But one has to start somewhere.
In the story, which originally ran in The Sentinel-Record at Hot Springs, David Showers wrote: "Certificates of appropriateness that the Hot Springs Historic District Commission issued to the Arlington Resort Hotel & Spa last week gave the hotel the go-ahead for improvements that its president of operations said represent a 'significant investment' in the building, which has commanded upper Central Avenue since 1925.
"The certificates allow the hotel to apply for building permits to install new windows in all 656 guest rooms and refurbish exterior brick and stucco. In 2017, the city said an engineering report--which the hotel's previous owner commissioned after a notice of unsafe conditions that the city issued the hotel in June 2016--indicated that water penetration could cause parts of the exterior to fall off."
Scott Larsen, president of operations for Arlington owner Sky Capital of San Antonio, said: "The building is going to get a big bath from top to bottom. The decorative tiles up high on the building will be left in place and sealed with a preservation sealant. As we come down the building, any items that need to be repaired will be repaired."
Post Oak Preservation Solutions of Austin, Texas, was hired to work on the project. Post Oak's Ellis Mumford-Russell said: "We found the original color of the stucco was likely sort of an ivory color. Right now it's quite yellow. We're looking at going back with an off-white with a little bit of warmth to it, so an ivory or eggshell color."
This is the third version of the Arlington. During Reconstruction, railroad magnate Samuel Fordyce offered to finance a luxury hotel with Samuel Stitt and William Gaines as his business partners. The Arlington was the largest hotel in the state when it was completed in 1875. It was across Fountain Street from the current location.
In 1893, the first building was torn down and rebuilt on the same site with more guest rooms and increased amenities. Construction of the elegant Eastman, Majestic and Park hotels in downtown Hot Springs had made an update necessary.
"On April 5, 1923, an employee noticed smoke coming from an electrical panel," Michael Hodge writes for the Central Arkansas Library System's Encyclopedia of Arkansas. "Authorities were notified as a fire slowly began to spread. William Pinkerton, founder of the famous security service and a guest at the time, was so certain that the fire would be controlled that he sat on the veranda and smoked a cigar rather than retrieve his belongings."
Pinkerton lost everything when the fire burned the hotel to the ground.
The current building was completed in November 1924. It was designed by noted architect George Mann and included two towers in the Mediterranean style. Now, people across Arkansas wait, hoping the San Antonio owner does right by this historic Arkansas structure in need of capital investment.
Unlike the Arlington, the Crescent is in its first building. It was constructed by the Eureka Improvement Co. in 1886. The company was headed by former Gov. Powell Clayton, who purchased 27 wooded acres and hired an architect from St. Louis to build a facility that would stand the test of time.
The building's 18-inch-thick limestone was carved from a quarry near the White River by Irish workers. The stones were hauled to the construction site by trains and specially constructed wagons.
Like Hot Springs, Eureka Springs drew visitors in search of healing waters from across the country. Newspaper writers throughout the region praised the hotel.
According to a history of the Crescent from the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History at Springdale: "The cost for this hotel, declared America's most opulent resort, was $294,000. The hotel opened to the public on May 1, 1886, with an open house two weeks later. On May 20, a banquet was held for James G. Blaine, the 1884 Republican presidential nominee.
"The Crescent enjoyed success for many years, but as the economy worsened, the hotel opened for business only during summer months. The owners formulated a plan to use the facility all year. In 1908, they opened the hotel as an elite girls' boarding school called Crescent College and Conservatory for Young Women. The college operated from September until June, converting into a hotel during the summer months."
The college closed in 1924. It opened again in 1929 before closing for good in 1933. After being shuttered for several years, the hotel was purchased in 1937 by a charlatan named Norman Baker, who claimed to serve cancer patients. Baker was convicted of mail fraud in 1940, and the building was empty once more. It reopened in 1946 and was billed as the "Castle in the Air, High Atop the Ozarks."
In 1996, Marty and Elise Roenigk from Connecticut visited Eureka Springs on the advice of a family member. They fell in love with the resort town and in February 1997 purchased downtown's Basin Park Hotel with the idea of converting its sixth and seventh floors into a two-level apartment. While in town, they also visited the Crescent, which had become rundown. The couple bought that hotel as well.
They came up with a 10-year plan that included restoring the Crescent's top floor, which had been heavily damaged in a 1967 fire. They announced the plan at a huge garden party in May 2000 and later made their residence on that top floor. Marty was killed in an automobile accident in 2009. Elise continues to live in the hotel.
The 10-year plan included annual upgrades to 20 rooms. A former servants' quarters that hadn't been used for almost a century was transformed into four suites, using plans drawn up by interior design students at the University of Arkansas.
In 2008, well-known architect David McKee designed four two-bedroom cottages that blend into the woods in the style of E. Fay Jones. The cottages on the edge of Crescent property have become popular with wedding parties and family groups.
Soon after coming to Eureka Springs, the Roenigks hired a veteran manager named Jack Moyer. He has since overseen the Crescent and Basin Park. The Crescent now advertises itself as "America's Most Haunted Hotel."
Rex Nelson is a senior editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.