The Crescent Hotel is a Nineteenth-century spa hotel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, renowned as one of the most haunted sites in the Ozark Mountains.

History

The hotel was built between 1884 and 1886 by a consortium that included the wealthy former governor of Arkansas Powell Clayton. Its imposing design includes several architectural styles. Construction was done by Irish stonemasons.

The wealthy flocked to the hotel to partake of the nearby mineral springs, touted for their healing properties. However, the hotel’s golden age lasted only about 20 years. When the springs were shown to have no particular curative powers, people stopped coming.

In 1908, the hotel was turned into a college and conservatory for young women and then into a junior college. It closed in 1934.

In 1937, the hotel entered a dark period. It was purchased by Norman Baker, a con man from Iowa who ran an illegal hospital for cancer patients. Though he had no medical degree, Baker was convinced he knew the cure for cancer. He set up his cancer hospital and carried on phony treatments. He redecorated the hotel in garish colors and hung machine guns on the wall. No one seems to have been cured by him, but records indicate that no one seems to have died either. According to legend, though, Baker practiced bizarre experiments on his patients and hid their bodies and jars of organs until he could burn them in the incinerator at night. Legend also tells of workmen in later years finding skeletons interred in the walls —more alleged Baker victims.

Baker’s medical career ended in 1940, when he was arrested, tried, and convicted on charges of mail fraud concerning his cancer cure claims. He was sent to Leavenworth Prison for four years, and the hotel was closed. From 1946 on, the hotel changed hands several times and was eventually restored to its original glory. Today it is a popular vacation destination.

Haunting Activity

The first ghostly resident joined the hotel when one of the original stonemasons fell to his death in 1885 in a spot now occupied by Room 218. The red-headed ghost has been named “Michael” by the hotel staff. Room 218 is the most active in the hotel. Guests are shaken awake at night and feel strange sensations.

In Room 202, a misty figure has been photographed. Another active room is 419, where a woman ghost introduces herself as “Theodora” and says she is a cancer patient. Numerous apparitions are seen in the hallways, including a nurse who wheels a gurney. Phantom footsteps are heard, and guests are touched at night. A man dressed in a Victorian suit appears in the lobby and bar.

Baker himself appears in the former recreation room; he is said to look lost. Basement storage areas, where legend holds that Baker stored his corpses and jars of body parts, have strange noises and apparitions. When the hotel still used its old switchboard, calls repeatedly came from the basement when it was locked and empty.

FURTHER READING:

• Taylor, Troy. The Haunting of America. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2001.

The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits– Written by Rosemary Ellen Guiley – September 1, 2007