Crescent Hotel (Eureka Springs, Arkansas)

The Crescent Hotel is a historic hotel at 75 Prospect Avenue in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It is billed as "America's most haunted hotel" and offers a ghost tour for a fee. The 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.





== History ==



The Crescent Hotel was built in 1886 to a design by Isaac S. Taylor, as a resort for the rich and famous, but quickly became unmanageable and fell into disrepair. In 1908, it was reopened as the Crescent College and Conservatory for Young Women. This institution closed down in 1924, and then opened again in 1930 as a junior college. After the college closed in 1934, the Crescent was leased as a summer hotel.

In 1937, it got a new owner, Norman G. Baker, who turned the place into a hospital and health resort. Baker, a millionaire, inventor and radio personality, styled himself as a doctor, despite having had no medical training. He claimed to have discovered a number of "cures" for various ailments, including cancer, and launched frequent attacks on organized medicine, which he accused of being corrupt and profit-driven.