Crescent Hotel

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

The Crescent Hotel is a Late Victorian Romanesque building at 75 Prospect Ave. in Eureka Springs, Carroll County, built in 1886. Isaac S. Taylor was its architect, and David McKee its builder.

Why it's listed

It was listed under criteria A and C, with state-level significance in architecture, education, health and medicine, and entertainment and recreation. Its period of significance runs from 1886, when the hotel opened, to 1966.

Physical character

Hand-hewn limestone forms the walls and foundation beneath a wood shingle roof, with brick used elsewhere, and a squared stone corner tower, mansard roof and corbeled chimneys mark the exterior. Norman Baker added a fourth-floor balcony in 1937, and fire destroyed the fourth floor and penthouse levels in 1967 before a new penthouse and Conservatory were rebuilt in 2001.

Historical context

James Blaine spoke at the hotel's opening gala in 1886, and William Jennings Bryan spoke to a crowd there in 1896. The Frisco Railroad leased the building from 1902 to 1907, after which it became the Crescent College for women until 1934. Baker bought the hotel in 1937 and remodeled it into the Baker Cancer Clinic, then was jailed for mail fraud in 1940.