Bathhouse Row In Hot Springs, AR.

                                     Saturday 6/15/2013

The main attraction in Hot Springs, AR., is Bath House Row.

There are 8 bathhouses that are on Bathhouse Row. The existing buildings are 3rd and 4th generation bathhouse. They sit next to Hot Springs Creek, and some sit directly over the hot springs. The creek is now enclosed in a tunnel under Central Ave., the main road in front of Bathhouse Row. The natural springs do not have sulphur like most hot springs, so there is not the rotten egg smell you get with most natural hot springs. These hot springs are not formed by volcanoes like most springs. The water is filtered through rock for thousands of years and then forced back up to the surface.

The National Parks Visitor Center was located in the Lamar Bathhouse. The Federal Government bought 4 parcels of land in 1832, which included the bathhouses to preserve the 47 natural hot springs.

The Buckstaff is the only bathhouse that is still open from all the original bathhouses.

You can get a Whirlpool Mineral Bath which includes a tub bath, hot packs, sitz bath, vapor cabinet, needle shower, and whirlpool turned on in your tub) for $30 a person. I would have like to have tried out the experience of the historic  package, but Joe didn't seem interested, so I passed it up. There are other bathing packages for a much higher price.

All the other bathhouses closed in 1962 to 1985, after the advancements in medicine made the bathing in the natural hot springs less believable as a health remedy.

The Fordyce Bathhouse is the most elaborate and was the most expensive of the bathhouses. The cost including fixtures and furniture was $212,749.55 US. It was closed on June 29, 1962, the first of the Row establishments to fall victim to the decline in popularity of therapeutic bathing. Fordyce Bathhouse has served as the park visitor center since 1989. Both park literature and the internet said that the Fordyce housed the visitor center, but it was located in the Larmar building while we were there. They must have been doing some kind of renovation on the Fordyce Bathhouse.

The walkway in front of the bathhouses is lined with Magnolia trees.There were just a few blooms on them while we were there. I am not sure if we were too late or too early.

Up the street from Bathhouse Row is the Arlington Hotel, which is famous for hosting many well know baseball players. 

If you are coming to Hot Springs for the weekend, the Arlington is the perfect place to stay, because it is located just a block from Bathhouse Row and Hot Springs National Park trails.

On the other side of  the street of Bathhouse Row, you will find shops and restaurants to explore and drive your husband crazy! I wanted to go into this shop, but there was a sign on the door saying they were closed to go to lunch.

It had lots of chandeliers that I wanted to check out.
 There was a lot of other things  I would have liked to have done but it was just too hot the week we were in Hot Springs. Just north of Hot Springs there is a place where you can dig for crystals. Joe said he rather go shopping than dig for crystals because at least he could get into the air condition shops verse sweat it out under an umbrella. There was also a garden, I would have like to gone to, but then again, Joe said it wouldn't be much fun walking around a garden in the heat. We left yesterday and we are in Little Rock, AR. for two nights, before we move further north.