The Haunted Crescent Hotel of Arkansas - 3rd Palm Paranormal Places
- NICHOLAS DODGE
- Jul 10
- 5 min read
Built in 1886, the Crescent Hotel was designed as an elite resort complete with working elevators and electricity (something that was very modern for its time). Though after a very short time the hotel was closed and would only open its doors during the busy summer months. Eventually it would be home to a women's college, then into a hospital and health retreat later on. That's where the horrors begin...
During the times when the hotel was used as a hospital, there was a morgue installed in the lower levels of the hotel. It didn't help the hotel's image that the owner at the time also claimed to have a "cure" for such afflictions as cancer. Within the two year-span that the hotel was a hospital with a miracle cure, at least 42 individuals were pronounced dead.
With the property being traded over the decades, as well as the disturbing practices that took place during the 1930's, it's no surprise that the Crescent Hotel is the most haunted place in all of Arkansas, and perhaps one of the most supernatural hotels in the country.
Presently:
The Crescent Hotel, like the Stanley Hotel, has embraced its somewhat dark past and has capitalized on its haunted nature, with ghost tours happening year-round. Anything from a tour through the old morgue, to visiting the Lady of the Lingerie in room 3500. With so many specters that we have yet to discuss, it's no surprise that this hotel had been raised from the dead itself (numerous times, in fact, since its multiple closures and renovations).
Reservations at the hotel go anywhere from $179 USD to $424 USD. Complete with restaurants, a spa, hiking trails and a dog park, a Frisco sports club complete with axe throwing, a pool during the warm seasons and a skating rink in the winter months, there's always something to do at the Crescent.
The hotel even holds a variety of events, including live music, Mardi Gras, Christmas celebrations, murder mystery dinners, operas and so much more. It seems as if the hotel is as lively as ever. Unfortunately, the Crescent wasn't always so glamorous and fun-felt...
The Crescent Hotel's Disturbing Past:
As we've already alluded to, the hotel wasn't always a hotel. In fact, when looking back into its past, it should've been obvious from the start while the hotel was failing that something was wrong with this place. Although, apart from its history as the Crescent College and Conservatory for Young Women, its real horrors didn't begin until the 1930's.
Originally built and designed by the St.-Louis-based architect Isaac S. Taylor in 1886, it was eventually bought up in 1937 (after becoming a college from 1908-1934) by a Norman G. Baker. Baker was a successful con man for his era, constantly paying for radio broadcasts depicting his newly acquired "hospital/health resort" as a "castle in the air". Although that statement may remain true to the atmosphere of the hotel now, back then it was a way to convince the sick and unwell to journey to the Crescent, just to die days later.
I say "die days later" because Baker was selling an end-all cure to any affliction a person may have (again, like cancer). But the cure that he was selling at the time was none other than the "natural spring waters" around the area, which of course still contained harmful bacteria if ingested without proper sterilization or filtration methods, both of which were obviously not used at the time.
He was also seen as blatantly corrupt and financially driven. Baker consistently made attacks on the organized medical associations and the like, who most definitely saw something wrong about his methods of medicating the public. Under his reign and within his two-year term at the Crescent, 42 people lost their lives to Baker's snake-oil scam.
But the doom and gloom doesn't end there. The hotel, left ownerless until 1946, was purchased by 4 different businessmen (John R. Constantine, Herbert E. Shutter, Herbert Byfield, and Dwight Nichols). It became a hotel again (allegedly, as sources are scattered), up until 1967 when the hotel's fourth floor caught fire, requiring sturdy renovations.
In 1997, a Marty and Elise Roenigk purchased the hotel for $1,300,000 USD, overseeing a six-year restoration and bringing back the spa in the basement levels of the hotel. Although Marty had died in a tragic car accident in 2009, Elise still remains as the hotel's owner.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016. In 2019, excavation at the hotel discovered medicinal bottles from Baker's time as owner. -Encyclopedia of Arkansas
The Numerous Hauntings at the Crescent Hotel:
The Crescent Hotel has been featured on both Ghost Hunters and Ghost Adventures for its estranged and unusual activity. It's hard to list every paranormal event and sighting without creating a whole new article for every one of them. So, here's a list taken from the official Crescent Hotel website, depicting so of the more infamous paranormal activities witnessed:
• Room 218, where Michael, an Irish stonemason who fell to his death when building the hotel is known to hang out.• Theodora, a cancer patient is known to be seen fumbling for her keys outside Room 419 as well as tidying up for guests when they leave the room.• Breckie, a 4-year-old child of Richard & Mary Breckenridge Thompson who died in the hotel due to complications from appendicitis. He has been seen throughout the hotel often bouncing a ball.• Dr. John Freemont Ellis, the hotel’s in-house doctor circa the late nineteenth century is most often seen–or his cherry pipe tobacco is smelled–near his office which is now room 212.• Morris, the famed hotel cat, was known as the Hotel General Manager for 21 years, and later buried on the hotel property is regularly seen and heard.
These don't even include the Lady of the Lingerie room in 3500, the young boy with the red bouncing ball, or Jasper the hotel's cat (aside from Morris, isn't actually a haunting...).
There are talks about an annexed space on the third floor that has left a divided mystery to the hotel, as well as a woman who had leapt from the balcony, and the limestone in the building that has been said to absorb psychic energies throughout the hotel.
The cast of Ghost Adventures had also claimed to of seen and captured a full-body apparition wandering the area, an occurrence that's extremely rare in the paranormal profession.
-The Haunted Crescent Hotel of Arkansas by 3rd Palm Paranormal Places
We could continue on and on with the various sightings, recorded voices, EMP and EVP readings captured on site. But we at 3rd Palm Paranormal think that its best if you, the reader, journey to the hotel yourself to help uncover the truth...
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