The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa - Eureka Springs, Arkansas
The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa photo by Thomas Routzong
The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa
Eureka Springs Historic, Haunted Hilltop Hotel
By Steven Skelley and Thomas Routzong
For 130 years, The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa has housed guests from the wealthiest of the wealthy to those conned out of their savings in a historic 1930’s medical scam.
Originally opened as a lavish resort in 1886 with over 100 horses in the stable for guests to enjoy, the property then became a women’s college in 1908 and eventually a fake cancer hospital run by a con man peddling worthless medicines to those in desperate need.
In 1997, Marty and Elise Roenigk purchased the hilltop hotel and invested $10 million for refurbishing and upgrading. It is now a member of Historic Hotels of America and has earned a place on the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
We asked Director of Marketing and Communications Bill Ott about The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa.
Please describe The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa in one sentence:
A proud member of Historic Hotels of America that is a mountaintop spa resort in the midst of the Arkansas Ozarks.
How does The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa hold a unique place in Eureka Springs history and U.S. history?
In the mid-1800s, the little village of Eureka Springs, Arkansas became a national and international phenomenon... its more than 60 natural artesian springs were reported to have healing powers.
Newspaper accounts of these springs healing powers brought tens of thousands of people to Eureka.
A group of entrepreneurs, the Eureka Springs Improvement Company (mostly railroad men) saw the potential of reaping big dollars from "the carriage set" so they built the hotel (the finest west of the Mississippi River) and invited the well-to-do (in the early years guests came by invitation only) to ride their train and stay in their hotel.
Today it is the "symbol of Arkansas hospitality" and vital to the one local industry: tourism.
Describe The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa's current lodgings and amenities:
Today for Eureka Springs lodging, the full-service Crescent Hotel features 76 rooms including luxury suites and cottages, hot tub and swimming pool, the New Moon Spa & Salon, the Crystal Dining Room, Sky Bar Gourmet Pizza with al fresco dining, concierge and bellman service, a resort activities coordinator, all surrounded by 15 acres of manicured show gardens and pristine woods with hiking and walking trails.
The hotel also offers Daily Activity Programming including a Kids Kamp, Spa Fitness, History Tour, and Back Porch Social.
What can you tell us about The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa's ghost tours?
Come get to know "guests who check out but never leave" as you tour "America's Most Haunted Hotel."
You will hear about and walk past the "active" rooms of Michael, Theodora and "the lady in the Victorian nightgown", have a chance to communicate with the host in the morgue, walk down the hallway where the nurse has been seen pushing a corpse on her gurney, see where "the girl in the mist" fell to her death and began haunting the courtyard below, and so much more.
The tour ends up in Norman Baker's morgue, site of where Syfy's Ghost Hunters caught a full-bodied apparition on their thermal imaging camera - what they called the holy grail of ghost hunting!
What are the future plans for The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa?
To continue growing year after year after year after year as they began doing in 1997 when Marty & Elise Roenigk bought the hotel and named Jack Moyer as its vice president of operations and general manager.
Strict adherence to a plan of economic sustainability and to the tenets of hotel's creed:
1) create lifetime memories
2) build the individual
3) protect the irreplaceable
4) be community minded
Add to this the Crescent's continuing active participation and leadership in the local, state, regional and national tourism industries and the hotel's future is guaranteed to be as bright as the dome of azure blue Ozark sky under which it sits and as stellar as the crescent moon after which it was named.
Conclusion:
We enjoyed dinner and spent one night at The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. The hotel truly has the feel of the bygone Victorian era. What stories these walls could tell if they could speak!
If you enjoy historic lodgings and ghost stories, make sure you spend at least one night at The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa when you visit Eureka Springs.
The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa is located at 75 Prospect Ave, Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Their phone is 855-725-5720.
For more information, visit http://crescent-hotel.com/index.shtml
For LGBT travelers, nearby Eureka Springs is the only city in Arkansas with a full non-discrimination ordinance clearly stating that Eureka Springs embraces equality, diversity and welcomes EVERYBODY. Eureka Springs celebrates the LGBT community several times a year with Diversity Weekends.
For more information about Eureka Springs, Arkansas, visit http://www.cityofeurekasprings.us/ or www.arkansas.com/Eureka-Springs
Check our USA Spotlight for more of our articles about Eureka Springs, the Ozarks, and Branson, Missouri.
Eureka Springs Historic, Haunted Hilltop Hotel
By Steven Skelley and Thomas Routzong
For 130 years, The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa has housed guests from the wealthiest of the wealthy to those conned out of their savings in a historic 1930’s medical scam.
Originally opened as a lavish resort in 1886 with over 100 horses in the stable for guests to enjoy, the property then became a women’s college in 1908 and eventually a fake cancer hospital run by a con man peddling worthless medicines to those in desperate need.
In 1997, Marty and Elise Roenigk purchased the hilltop hotel and invested $10 million for refurbishing and upgrading. It is now a member of Historic Hotels of America and has earned a place on the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
We asked Director of Marketing and Communications Bill Ott about The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa.
Please describe The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa in one sentence:
A proud member of Historic Hotels of America that is a mountaintop spa resort in the midst of the Arkansas Ozarks.
How does The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa hold a unique place in Eureka Springs history and U.S. history?
In the mid-1800s, the little village of Eureka Springs, Arkansas became a national and international phenomenon... its more than 60 natural artesian springs were reported to have healing powers.
Newspaper accounts of these springs healing powers brought tens of thousands of people to Eureka.
A group of entrepreneurs, the Eureka Springs Improvement Company (mostly railroad men) saw the potential of reaping big dollars from "the carriage set" so they built the hotel (the finest west of the Mississippi River) and invited the well-to-do (in the early years guests came by invitation only) to ride their train and stay in their hotel.
Today it is the "symbol of Arkansas hospitality" and vital to the one local industry: tourism.
Describe The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa's current lodgings and amenities:
Today for Eureka Springs lodging, the full-service Crescent Hotel features 76 rooms including luxury suites and cottages, hot tub and swimming pool, the New Moon Spa & Salon, the Crystal Dining Room, Sky Bar Gourmet Pizza with al fresco dining, concierge and bellman service, a resort activities coordinator, all surrounded by 15 acres of manicured show gardens and pristine woods with hiking and walking trails.
The hotel also offers Daily Activity Programming including a Kids Kamp, Spa Fitness, History Tour, and Back Porch Social.
What can you tell us about The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa's ghost tours?
Come get to know "guests who check out but never leave" as you tour "America's Most Haunted Hotel."
You will hear about and walk past the "active" rooms of Michael, Theodora and "the lady in the Victorian nightgown", have a chance to communicate with the host in the morgue, walk down the hallway where the nurse has been seen pushing a corpse on her gurney, see where "the girl in the mist" fell to her death and began haunting the courtyard below, and so much more.
The tour ends up in Norman Baker's morgue, site of where Syfy's Ghost Hunters caught a full-bodied apparition on their thermal imaging camera - what they called the holy grail of ghost hunting!
What are the future plans for The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa?
To continue growing year after year after year after year as they began doing in 1997 when Marty & Elise Roenigk bought the hotel and named Jack Moyer as its vice president of operations and general manager.
Strict adherence to a plan of economic sustainability and to the tenets of hotel's creed:
1) create lifetime memories
2) build the individual
3) protect the irreplaceable
4) be community minded
Add to this the Crescent's continuing active participation and leadership in the local, state, regional and national tourism industries and the hotel's future is guaranteed to be as bright as the dome of azure blue Ozark sky under which it sits and as stellar as the crescent moon after which it was named.
Conclusion:
We enjoyed dinner and spent one night at The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. The hotel truly has the feel of the bygone Victorian era. What stories these walls could tell if they could speak!
If you enjoy historic lodgings and ghost stories, make sure you spend at least one night at The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa when you visit Eureka Springs.
The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa is located at 75 Prospect Ave, Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Their phone is 855-725-5720.
For more information, visit http://crescent-hotel.com/index.shtml
For LGBT travelers, nearby Eureka Springs is the only city in Arkansas with a full non-discrimination ordinance clearly stating that Eureka Springs embraces equality, diversity and welcomes EVERYBODY. Eureka Springs celebrates the LGBT community several times a year with Diversity Weekends.
For more information about Eureka Springs, Arkansas, visit http://www.cityofeurekasprings.us/ or www.arkansas.com/Eureka-Springs
Check our USA Spotlight for more of our articles about Eureka Springs, the Ozarks, and Branson, Missouri.
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Article and photos by Steven Skelley and Thomas Routzong
Copyright 2016 Sunny Harbor Publishing Sunny Harbor Publishing PO Box 560318, Rockledge, FL 32956 Phone: 321-446-7552 [email protected] www.SunnyHarborPublishing.org |
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