Elise Roenigk and her husband, Marty, discovered Eureka Springs almost by accident early three decades ago.
It is hard to imagine Eureka Springs without them now, even 15 years after Marty’s death at age 66.
The Roenigks were visiting Fayetteville in 1996 when they decided to take a side trip to Eureka Springs to see the Miles Musical Museum in 1996. The Connecticut couple was looking for a second home and possible retirement destination, and they quickly fell in love with the historic charm of the town tucked away in Carroll County.
They looked for some property to buy and were quickly intrigued by the 1905 Basin Park Hotel in downtown Eureka Springs. In early 1997, the Roenigks bought the hotel for approximately $1 million.
“We [were] two accountant types walking down Spring Street in the early morning and saying, ‘I think this is where we belong,’” Roenigk said. “We thought, ‘Oh, that would be nice. We could live right downtown and it would be cool.’ So we bought it.”
The ink had barely dried on that contract when the Roenigks — or rather Marty Roenigk — decided to add the 1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa to their portfolio, buying the four-story hotel for $1.3 million just a couple months later.
Elise Roenigk jokingly blames her husband and Jack Moyer, the longtime general manager of the hotels, for the decision to buy the second hotel.
“Jack and Marty got heads together, and they decided if somebody bought the Crescent that it would pull all the business from downtown,” Elise Roenigk said. “So in May we bought the Crescent too. I said, ‘This is crazy,’ and my husband said, ‘We are doing it.’”
Moyer said both deals have worked out.
“I wouldn’t say Elise was super excited to buy the Crescent, but I think she loves it now,” Moyer said. “Her concept of retirement was a little smaller than Marty’s.”
Elise Roenigk said the acquisitions were done only under the condition that Moyer would stay on as general manager. The Roenigks didn’t move to Eureka Springs until 1999.
“I have to say when we bought the hotels we didn’t know a thing about the hospitality industry,” Roenigk said.
Quick Assimilation
Any reservations the good folks of Eureka Springs might have had about two yankees buying their iconic hotels quickly evaporated. “We were once described as the 800-pound gorilla in the room, or maybe elephant,” Roenigk said. “I think we proved ourselves.”
The couple proved to be devout preservationists, and the Crescent was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2022, Elise Roenigk received the lifetime achievement award from the Historic Hotels of America.
“The driving force for them has always been preservation,” Moyer said. “They were very, very genuine people, and they came here and participated. They met people and made friends. Eureka is a collection of eclectic, well-educated people.”
It was education that brought the Roenigks together. They met at Antioch College, a liberal arts college in Ohio — with the emphasis on liberal — before Marty Roenigk started a long career as an insurance executive. Elise Roenigk managed the books for several businesses and did the same, and still does to a lesser extent, at Basin Park and the Crescent.
Moyer said the Roenigks spent thousands of dollars renovating both hotels. Even today, the hotels aren’t cash cows for Elise Roenigk, who makes sure the profits are funneled back into the hotels.
“I am involved in overall planning, and I leave most of [the operations] to Jack because he is the one who is trained,” said Roenigk, now 83. “I used to do more of the book work, but I am still involved in some of the tax stuff. I like to keep my fingers going.”
Moyer said he expects the hotels and related activities such as spa, ghost tours and events to generate $20 million in revenue this year.
“It is all about preservation because it is not a money-making plan for them,” Moyer said. “We make a capital improvement plan based on the profit from the year before. Then, we spend it fixing the hotels up and keeping them relevant.”
Women Run
Elise Roenigk said she didn’t deserve the Historic Hotels of America award because her staff does most of the heavy lifting.
Roenigk’s hotels employ more than 250, making her business No. 1 on this week’s list of Woman-Owned Companies (Pages 14-16), and 70% of those on the 40-person management staff are women.
“I don’t know that consciously I’ve been doing it, but I do it by example,” said Roenigk, adding she has always called herself a “pushy broad.” “When I look at it, I don’t know about the numbers, but we are heavy on the female side in management. It works.”
Moyer said Roenigk is downplaying her leadership in that regard.
“She underestimates that because you promote from the people who seek you out,” Moyer said. “If you have a female-owned business, many of the people who come work for you are female. If you are promoting from within, you have to have a lot of females who are comfortable in the environment to be as female-dominant [as the hotels are].”
That Roenigk would run an open-minded organization shouldn’t surprise anyone. She said, as a point of pride, that Antioch College was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee, and Eureka Springs reminds her of that ethos.
“Both Marty and Elise went to a hippie school so they fit in nicely here,” Moyer said. “Marty and Elise embraced Eureka. They embraced the spirit of Eureka, they supported the spirit of Eureka and the free spirit of Eureka. Marty and Elise put their necks out, going way back, with gay marriage and diversity; they were outliers when it was risky to do so.”
After Marty’s death in 2009, Elise Roenigk said she never considered leaving Eureka Springs.
“After he died, people thought I would leave Eureka,” Roenigk said. “I thought, where else would I go? … I have a whole lot of people depending on me, and it seems like this was the place to stay.”
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