The Historic Arlington, Still Vital (Ray Hanley Commentary)

Arlington Hotel’s Crystal Ballroom

I recently read in Arkansas Business of the problems with the historic Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs. Through four Hot Springs history books and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette column Arkansas Postcard Past, I have published more photos and history on the three iterations of the Arlington than anyone in the state, and I felt it important to share that history so people can understand the Arlington’s role in the development of Hot Springs.

The first Arlington, the largest hotel in the state, opened in 1875 at Fountain and Central with financing from Col. W.S. Fordyce. The sprawling wood structure was the gem of the city until the new Eastman opened at the other end of Central. In the race to be the grandest, Fordyce and others razed one Arlington to build a new one.

The new hotel, a five-story, red brick Spanish Renaissance-style building with 300 rooms and a 650-foot veranda, opened in 1893 at a cost of $550,000 on the southeast corner of Central and Fountain. The hotel offered its own thermal baths and was described as “the equal in continuance and beauty of any bathing establishment in this country or Europe.” Hot Springs was then a Victorian wonder and billed itself as a world-class spa city, and the Arlington was in the heart of that claim.

The new hotel made a special effort to appeal to women, opening its rotunda — previously reserved for men — to them. With oak-finished walls, chandeliers, massive fireplaces, easy chairs and sofas, it became the gathering place for the city’s elite and wealthy visitors. The hotel had its own orchestra, providing concert music in the afternoon and into the evening. In 1915, quoted rates at the hotel ranged between $1 and $7.50 for a double room with a bath.

After 30 years, the Victorian grandeur of the Arlington was lost in a fire that began with an electrical malfunction in the basement, at first thought containable. Among the guests was famed detective William Pinkerton, who sat on the porch smoking a cigar until the extent of the fire became apparent. The one casualty was fireman George Ford, a father of seven, who died beneath a collapsing wall. Hotel manager W.E. Chester donated the first $500 for a fund for Ford’s family.

Within days of the fire the Arlington’s owners declared their intention to quickly rebuild what would be the city’s third Arlington and the one we know today as in need of what is reported to be extensive renovation. Samuel Fordyce and investors pushed construction around the clock, paying bricklayers $1.50 an hour and carpenters $1 an hour. Within a year of the destruction of the 1893 Arlington, the new $2 million, 500-room Arlington was open for business.

The new hotel would become the home of the Spa City’s first radio station, with a rooftop transmitter tower. The call letters, KTHS, were said to stand for “Kum to Hot Springs.” The station, reaching into 23 states, helped launch Chester Lauck and Norris Goff as the comedy duo Lum and Abner.

Over the decades, the Arlington would host many thousands of tourists and conventioneers, but also all sorts of famous people. In my books I’ve used photos of boxing champ Jack Dempsey in the hotel dining room, and Sen. Joe T. Robinson formally accepting the 1928 vice presidential nomination on the Democratic ticket. Gangster Al Capone was very partial to the Arlington on his “vacations” to Hot Springs, and reportedly even rented the entire fourth floor on occasion, with his favorite casino just across the street.

In 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt came to the Arlington on the occasion of Arkansas’ 100th anniversary of statehood, at which he proclaimed, “Arkansas can claim every warrant for the name ‘Wonder State.’”

The historical vantage point of the Arlington was especially brought home to me in 2013 while working on the book “Hot Springs Past & Present,” when I went up to the reception desk with two 1929 photos taken from a room, one looking north up Central and one looking south. The clerk said, “These are from the balcony of Room 1013.” She gave me access to that room to take photos from the balcony, which I paired in the book with those of 84 years earlier. Nothing offered a better perspective of the change over the decades than from that 10th-floor balcony and the significance of the Arlington’s place in Hot Springs.

It is vital to Hot Springs that the Arlington get the restoration it requires to keep its well-earned position in the history and economy of the city.

Ray Hanley is the president and CEO of the Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care, in addition to being a historian and columnist.