Crescent Hotel
This historic Arkansas hotel and spa may be haunted by its past life as a hospital
Paranormal Activity at
Crescent Hotel
- The ghost of a construction worker reportedly haunts Room 218
- Objects have been moved by unseen forces
- A man’s apparition has been seen in the lobby
- A ghost cat is felt weaving through people’s legs
- Sounds of a squeaking gurney are head throughout the hotel
- The figure of a nurse pushing a gurney has been spotted
- A phantom doctor’s pipe tobacco can be smelled around his old office
- Loud unexplained noises have been heard
- A ghostly boy is heard bouncing a ball down the halls
- A woman’s apparition is seen in a fourth floor room
- Unexplained feelings are reported around the old morgue
History of the 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa
Eureka Springs, Arkansas, has been a resort-style escape for people since the day it was founded. Dotted with bed & breakfasts, boutique inns, and rental homes, the small town offers options for visitors to book their own quiet escapes.
But if you want a getaway that’s both relaxing and haunting, there’s one true choice in town: the 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa.
The large stone hotel sits atop a hill surrounded by snaking roads. Head up just the right curves and bends in the roads and you’ll land right on Crescent Hotel’s broad front porch.
And the historic inn has plenty to offer within its walls: spacious rooms, a luxurious spa…and plenty of ghosts to go around!
Timeline of Crescent Hotel's History
Swipe or use timeline points to see Crescent Hotel through the years
1879
In 1879, Eureka Springs was founded around the popular belief at the time that some natural water springs could carry curative properties for all sorts of diseases and injuries. Allegedly, natural waters of Eureka Springs had these mystical properties, drawing in thousands of people.
It wasn’t long before lodges sprouted up to support the town’s tourists. In 1884, construction began on the grandest local hotel yet. It took two years, but when Crescent Hotel opened in 1886, it took the town by storm.
1902
The hotel’s luxury, nearby access to the local spring water, and expansive hilltop porch views made it an overnight success in Eureka Springs. For the remainder of the 1800s, Crescent Hotel flourished along with the rest of the community as throngs of people flocked in each year for the water’s supposed cures.
But, as the dawn of the 1900s came, the fad of spring water treatment resorts faded, and so did Crescent Hotel’s business. In 1902, the hotel was rented out to a railroad company who hoped to lodge their travelers there.
1908
The agreement with the rail company lasted only a few years, and after that, Crescent Hotel seemed ready to close. But, in 1908, it reopened as the Crescent College & Conservatory for Young Women. The old inn saw brand new life breathed into its halls by the college, and the future seemed bright again.
But the Great Depression brought financial woe back to the hotel, and the college closed for good in 1934. Crescent Hotel sat dark and empty for a few years after that, but soon caught the attention of a strange man.
1937
In 1937, Norman Baker set his sights on the old Eureka Springs hotel, refurbishing it into ‘Baker’s Cancer Hospital.’ Baker then put out attractive ads to America’s wealthy, boasting his hospital’s ability to cure cancer with diet, exercise, and fresh air. Countless desperate and sick people flocked to Baker’s hospital in hopes of a miracle.
They found none. As Baker’s patients died, he enriched himself with their long stays in his hospital. It all came crashing down in 1940 when Baker was arrested for fraud.
1946
After Baker’s debacle, the Crescent Hotel sat empty through the early 1940s, until a group of investors came up with a grand plan to save it and purchased it. In 1946, the investors bought the hotel and restored it back to its 1800s look.
They also partnered with the rail company that previously owned the hotel to offer vacation packages to people in the region. The collaboration took off, and by the late 1940s the hotel was bright and alive again. And this time, the new life would stick.
1967
Decade-after-decade, the renewed Crescent Hotel flourished as the crown jewel of Eureka Springs. A fire in 1967 required extensive repairs and renovations to the upper floors. But aside from that, Crescent Hotel maintained its historic grandeur and success through the 20th century.
New ownership in the 1990s reinvigorated the hotel with restorations as well as modernizations. And while Crescent continues to boom still today, some well-known figures from the hotel’s varied past may still make themselves known around the property in spirit.
Is the 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa Haunted?
Today, the Crescent Hotel is a hotspot for haunted happenings and ghost stories. The ghostly tales around the hotel start right at the beginning of the hotel’s life.
One popular tale tells of an unfortunate construction worker who, during the hotel’s construction in the 1880s, fell to his death. A young man, known as Michael in many retellings, fell from his fourth floor position down into an unfinished area of the second floor.
That area purportedly became Room 218, which remains a hotbed of paranormal reports to this day.
Guests in the room report seeing an apparition of a man fall through the ceiling, while others report hearing the room door slam shut. A few have even claimed to see ghostly hands reaching out of the bathroom mirror in Room 218.
The Disappearing Patient
Room 218 is far from the Crescent Hotel’s only supposedly haunted room. On the fourth floor, Room 419 is frequently mentioned as a haunted hotspot due to its mysterious female apparition.
There, cleaning staff have claimed to walk into the room only to come face-to-face with a woman, who says she’s a patient of Dr. Baker’s. Shortly after exchanging pleasantries, the woman disappeared before the eyes of the cleaning crew. Witnesses have taken to referring to this spirit as, ‘Theodora.’
Second Floor Spirits
Back on the second floor, Room 212 is also known to be haunted. This room is said to be the former office of the hotel’s resident doctor in the early 1900s, John Freemont Ellis. Now, guests in the room claim to smell pipe tobacco smoke emanating through their room.
This activity is pinned on Ellis’ phantom still lingering in the room, as he was a well-known pipe smoker in life. Moreover, many witnesses claim the smell is of cherry-flavored tobacco, supposedly the doctor’s favorite.
The Hotel’s Spectral Steward
The second floor is apparently such a focal point for phantasmic activity, you might encounter a ghost the second you get off the elevator.
In one hotel ghost story, a couple stepped off the elevator and met a smiling man in Victorian-era clothing who offered to walk them to their room, seemingly a hotel steward. The man led them to the room, unlocked the door, and let them in.
The couple started getting unpacked, only to realize they forgot to tip the man. When they headed out to the hall, no one was there.
Odder still, they couldn’t get back into the room afterwards, and had to go downstairs for a new key…only to be told there was no steward on the second floor helping anyone.
Play Ball With a Young Boy’s Ghost
While the Crescent Hotel has its share of purportedly haunted rooms, you don’t need to check into the hotel to encounter something spooky. Apparitions and odd activity are noted in the halls and lobby as well.
The ghost of a young boy, said to be the son of the women’s college president, has been heard in many different areas, especially the second floor halls. While not often seen, his presence is known by the telltale sound of a ball bouncing on the ground.
Ghost Cats & Phantom Physicians
You might also be lucky enough to encounter a ghost cat on your visit to the Crescent Hotel. Morris the cat, as he was known in life, was the hotel ‘General Manager’ through the 1970s and 1980s, until he died in 1994.
But ever since his death, guests have claimed to feel a cat rubbing up against their legs and weaving through them as well, only no cat is ever around.
Visitors to the lobby may also get a chance to see the spectral image of Norman Baker passing by in a rush.
Baker was a known lover of the color purple when he was alive, and his apparition similarly is known for being clad in purple as he darts through the lobby. Where he’s off to, no one knows, maybe down to the basement morgue…
Mysteries in the Morgue
Baker’s old hospital morgue in the hotel’s basement is another noted paranormal hotspot. A frequent stop on ghost tours of the hotel, the old morgue still shows off some old specimen containers and other mysterious medical artifacts from Baker’s time running the building.
It’s also an area where people report strange, overwhelming feelings of unease, and even mild sickness. Of course, these odd events quickly fade once people leave the area of the old morgue.
Crescent Hotel’s Spooky Nurse
Norman Baker isn’t the only supposed remnant of the hotel’s past as a cancer hospital. Some visitors claim to see the figure of a 1930s nurse pushing an old metal gurney through the hotel’s hallways. No one knows just who she is, but many have claimed to see her.
Plenty more, while not spotting her, have sworn they heard the sound of a metal gurney squeaking up and down the halls at night. Perhaps the spirit of this unknown nurse is stuck making her daily rounds forever.
Doors Slam In This Haunted Hotel
Along with all these well-known ghost stories and identified specters, Crescent Hotel is full of other kinds of activity with uncertain sources and no real associated hotspot. All through the building, for example, strange, loud noises and bangs are heard by staff and guests, but no cause has ever been found for these noises.
Similarly, sounds of slamming doors are quite common all through the hotel. Some guests have even reported seeing drawers on the room dressers pull open right before their eyes.
The Haunted Hotel of Eureka Springs
The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa keeps busy as Eureka Springs’ most beloved historic hotel. While tourists are no longer visiting for the supposed curative properties of the local water, the small town offers plenty of things to entice visitors in need of a quiet, historic getaway down south.
Of course, the endless ghost stories help bring in more paranormal enthusiasts to the Crescent Hotel all the time.
Though you can’t book a full ghost hunt of the whole building (they are an active hotel, after all), Crescent Hotel offers a broad variety of ghost tours and ghost-centric stay packages for their especially spooky guests.
Whether you’re looking for a picturesque southern escape, or a scenic and haunting adventure, Crescent Hotel might be the place for you. Just don’t let the Victorian-era steward show you to your room, you’ll likely end up in the wrong one. Though if Morris the ghost cat beckons you, follow him. He might show you to hotspots only a General Manager would know.
