HGB Ep. 555 - Arlington Resort Hotel and Spa

Moment in Oddity - Ewart Postcard (Suggested by: Jenny Lynn Raines)

In today's world, most of us know someone who has pursued finding genetic leads to extended family. Many companies have been founded to assist in these searches such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com. Sometimes it's simply to document a family tree, but other times it's in search of a long lost loved one. In the case of a West Sussex, United Kingdom family, the search actually came to them unexpectedly. You see, the Davies family received a postcard this last August of 2024, from a long lost relative. The postcard was delivered 100 years late in spite of being sent in 1903. The postcard was addressed to a Lydia, having been sent by her brother, Ewart. It arrived at the Swansea Building Society's Cradock Street branch. The postal anomaly was published in different forms of media. The news gained the attention of separate families that discovered that they were related. Ewart's grandson, Nick Davies stated that meeting new family members due to the discovered postcard was "extraordinary". As the family story goes, Ewart was summering at his grandfather's and knowing that his sister back in Swansea collected postcards, he decided to send one to Lydia. The postcard brought together 4 distant relatives, some of which had general knowledge of possible extended family but no solid details regarding their personal information. It is thought that perhaps the postcard fell out of a bible that was purchased at auction following a house clearance. This may have then prompted the finder to put it back into the postal system. Regardless of what brought this family reunion to fruition, receiving a postcard 100 years late, certainly is odd.

This Month in History - Discovery of Manhattan Island

In the month of September, on the 11th, in 1609, Henry Hudson discovered Manhattan Island. Hudson was an English sea explorer working for the Dutch East India Company. His goal was to find the reputed Northeast Passage to Cathay, now present day China. Instead, his exploration brought him to New Netherlands. Hudson explored the region around modern day New York's metropolitan area. The first Dutch colonists arrived with the first 31 families in 1623, and by 1625, the colony of New Amsterdam was established. Henry's journey took him up the Hudson River which was named for him in 1664 when the English took over the colony from the Dutch. This is also when New Netherlands was renamed New York, after the Duke of York. By 1664, the village of New Amsterdam was a community of 1,500 people who spoke 18 different languages. Although Henry Hudson never did find a Northeast passage to China, he greatly contributed to the navigational geography of North America.

Arlington Hotel & Spa (Suggested by: Sandra Latham Parr)

The Arlington Hotel and Spa has so many ghost stories that are connected to it that it would make more sense for us to tell the listeners that it is located in Haunt Springs rather than Hot Springs, Arkansas. The hotel is located in the heart of downtown Hot Springs and is the third version of the hotel to stand and has been here for 100 years. This is a large and glorious historic hotel that hosted the rich, powerful and famous decades ago. Join us for the history and hauntings of the Arlington Resort Hotel and Spa.

The thermal springs in Hot Springs attracted Native Americans for centuries to come and partake of the healing waters. A French Jesuit priest named Father Marquette joined forces with an explorer named Louis Jolliet to explore the northern portion of the Mississippi River Valley. In 1673, they traveled down to Arkansas and claimed the area for France. Spain would obtain it in 1763 via the Treaty of Paris and then was back in France's hands by 1800. America would end up with it in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase. A man named Prudhomme was the first permanent settler, but the Quapaw tribe owned the springs. They ceded the land in 1818 through a treaty. The Hot Springs were protected as the Hot Springs Reservation 1832 and that became Hot Springs National Park in 1921.

Railroad Executive Samuel Fordyce started early with the railroad. He was twenty when he became a station agent for the Central Ohio Railroad. A year later, the Civil War had broken out and he enlisted with the First Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. He eventually was promoted to captain and wound up wounded three times and captured three times. After the war, his health was in decline from his war wounds and he had heard about the healing benefits of the water in Hot Springs, so he moved. He assisted with the growth of the city and he joined forces with two other entrepreneurs, Samuel Stitt and William Gaines, to build the Arlington Hotel in 1875. This was the first luxury hotel in the area and became the anchor for the bathhouse district. it had 120 guest rooms and had gas lighting. The hotel was three-stories and built from wood. Despite being the first, the hotel soon lagged behind other hotels being built like the Majestic and Eastman and it was razed in 1893. The newer rendition had a larger guest capacity with 300 rooms with five levels and updated amenities and was designed in the Spanish Revival style. The interior featured a rotunda, pink parlor, grand ballroom and the show piece was the grand ornamental oak stairway that circled a beautiful glass dome.

Things went well until 1923 when a fire started at an electrical panel. William Pinkerton was staying at the hotel and he, along with other guests, figured that the fire would be quickly put out, so he found himself a comfortable chair on the spacious veranda to enjoy a cigar. Pinkerton was quite wrong as the building burned completely to the ground and he lost all his belongings. It was decided to rebuild again, but this time the hotel was put on a plot across the street from the original. The new and current Arlington Hotel opened on November 28, 1924 with a gala New Year's Eve dinner dance. The hotel was designed by the primary architect of the Arkansas State Capitol, George R. Mann. This was designed in the Mediterranean style and features two massive towers that make it quite distinct. There were 560 guest rooms, a Writing Room, Card Room, Board Room, Crystal Ballroom and Venetian Room. A Music Room opened onto the Venetian Room and featured performances by the Arlington Orchestra. Vacationers got to enjoy the ease of not having to leave the hotel to enjoy the mineral springs. The Arlington had an in-house bath house and for those willing to pay more, there were 50 rooms that had the water piped in.

The 1950s brought the upgrade of air conditioning and heat and in 1969, the original hand-operated elevators were replaced with three guest elevators. It's a bummer to lose the nostalgia of the original elevator, but never fear, the Arlington still features the manually operated original bath house elevator that is lined with beveled glass and shining brass. The first radio station in Arkansas, KTHS, broadcast from the Arlington. Former Arkansas governor Joe T. Robinson announced his acceptance of the Democratic nomination for vice president in 1928 from the radio station. He used the hotel as his campaign headquarters. Many Miss Arkansas pageants were hosted at the hotel and several luminaries stayed here including U.S. presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, Tony Bennett, Babe Ruth, Barbara Streisand and Yoko Ono. 

The infamous have stayed here as well. Al Capone liked to rent out the entire fourth floor for his crew and he would stay in Room 443 and so that suite has been named for him. Capone liked this room because he could look across the street from his window and see the activities at the Southern Club, which is today the Wax Museum. Many of the original rooms are still in use with a few changes here and there. The Writing Room is now a Starbucks and the Card Room had its name changed to Magnolia Room. The hotel has several suites for rent, not only named for Al Capone, but there is also The Reagan and The Babe Ruth. Mineral Water Rooms feature bathtubs with hot springs mineral water piped in. There are twin outdoor pools, spa services, a convention center, shops, restaurants and an award winning lobby bar.

The Arlington Hotel wasn't one of those hotels that liked to talk about their strange activity. But several years ago, the hotel management started allowing employees to share encounters that they had with the other side. And they certainly were glad they did because people have been flocking to the haunted rooms. There are reports of faucets turning themselves on and off on their own. Disembodied laughter is heard and lights flash on and off by themselves. Guests and staff have seen full-bodied apparitions in period clothing strolling through the lobby and walking in the hallways. One spirit that has been seen is a little girl in a pink dress. There is also a woman who has is seen wearing a wedding dress. The fourth floor is home to the spirit of former bellhop Henry Tweedle. 

Some guests were staying at the hotel and they captured what looks like two footprints in the carpet standing in front of the door to Room 723. They are believed to belong to a lady in white that haunts the hotel. Guests also claim to have seen the spirit of a man taking a bath on the men's side of the bath house. A man wearing a black suit is seen in the laundry room. A bartender claims that a certain bottle of wine likes to jump off the shelf on occasion and this has been witnessed by guests. The elevator will run by itself to the fourth floor and then open. People believe this is the spirit of Al Capone. We spoke with Erin Egnatz about the spirit of Capone haunting places and here is yet another one of those places.

Carmen Jones is the Arlington Director of Operations and she told The Sentinel-Record, "The Magnolia Room downstairs, occasionally we'll be setting up for a group and the lights will go real bright and then they flicker. I've had our maintenance department, and we've brought in electricians to look at it, and there's nothing wrong with the wiring, it's not the dimming switch; it's just unexplainable. There's also a chandelier in the Venetian Dining Room that's in the far back corner, and you can be standing there at the serving station and all of a sudden it will go extremely bright and it's the only chandelier in the room that will do it, and then it'll dim back out, and all of them are on the same wiring." 

Jones says that Room 824 is the most haunted room in the hotel. She said, ""I've heard several stories... of items falling off the bathroom shelf, the lights turning on and flickering while people are trying to sleep," she said. "A lot of the experiences take place between around 3 a.m. to 4 a.m. This particular bathroom, the sink will turn on periodically and the bathroom will get all steamy while they're asleep, and they wake up and they walk in there and their items fall off the shelves." Jones said of the Capone Suite, "I've had a lot of guests say that occasionally when you stay in there, you catch the smell of a cigar, and of course, it's a non-smoking hotel, so we do not know where that's coming from. Guests have heard the connecting doorknob turn, but you can't access that doorknob from the other room because there's no doorknob on the other side, but they'll see the doorknob like start moving."

Natural State Paranormal investigated in 2021 and they stayed in Room 824 and when they asked if anyone wanted to speak to them, they captured an EVP saying "No way." And then a few minutes later they asked if the spirits wanted them to leave and an EVP said "Yeah." A REM Pod set up in the middle of the bed went off several times. It went like this, they set up the REM Pod and were getting ready to leave the room and it went off. They would ask for the spirit to do it again and nothing. Then they would start to leave again and the REM Pod would go off again. It did this several times so it was like it was telling them not to go. Or just really messing around with them. Probably the coolest thing happened at the end of the evening in their room. They were using the SLS Camera and had an entity appear on it a couple times and it almost seemed like it was hanging on the back of the bathroom door and so they were capturing this via the mirror. When they asked if it was behind the door, the Spirit Box said "hiding."

And wouldn't you know, Hot Springs has a ghost tour because there are other haunts here too. Bathhouse Row still has eight surviving bathhouses and continues to be the architectural core of downtown Hot Springs. These bathhouses took the place of the early sweat lodges built by the Native Americans. The year 1946 was the height of the bathing era with over one million baths taken. They need a McDonald's sign for that, "Over 1 Million Served." Bathhouse Row was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987, but unfortunately hasn't seen much use. Only two of the houses are still operating and a third has been adapted into the Fordyce Bathhouse Visitor Center and Museum. The Hale is the oldest bathhouse having opened in 1893 and it was renovated into a theater in 1981, but closed before it was even open a year. Right across from Bathhouse Row is the Bathhouse Soapery and Caldarium, which had originally been a Japanese Tea Room. A beautiful high schooler named Violet Boles had worked here. A young man had become obsessed with her and when she wouldn't reciprocate his feelings, he murdered her in the tea room. The haunting going on here is that people claim to sometimes feel as though someone is wrapping their hands around your neck in the store's back left corner. 

Adair Park sits between between Granny’s Kitchen and It’s About Rocks. This is the original site of the Arlington Hotel and some people may have died n the fire. In particular, there are those who say at least one man did because they hear his groans in the park at night. Those groans and moans have been captured as EVP. St. John the Baptist is a Catholic Church at 589 W. Grand Ave. Apparently, the site was once home to a pauper's cemetery and as always seems to happen in these cases, not all the bones were moved. Colonel George Latta bought the cemetery and made an honest effort, but while the church was being constructed boned kept being unearthed. These bones were put inside a very large box that was sealed and placed under the altar rail where they remained for many years, but don't seem to be there anymore and no one knows what happened to the bones. The church is said to be haunted with shadow figures being seen and the lights have a mind of their own. 

The Poet's Loft was a performance art theater that had been located at 514 Central Avenue in the upper part of the building. Back at the time when Hot Springs was a little wilder it was called The Raven Club and was a gambling hall and bordello. In 1912, it was a jewelry store and loan office. Today, we aren't sure what is upstairs, it might be a jewelry repair shop, but the ground floor is an antique shop. There were said to be several spirits here. Ghost Lab investigated The Poet's Loft in 2010. Shortly before that time, a regular performer at the club named Tee, died. People claimed that he was haunting the place. The stairway leading up into the former club had reports of people being shoved. An employee named Sam told the crew that he was closing up one night and as he walked down the stairs, he felt a hand pressing against his back. He was the only one in the building. The front door would also open by itself and slam shut. A picture with Tee in it would never stay straight on the wall. It would always go crooked and several employees would watch it move. A dark apparition wearing a hat would be seen. A local poet named Celeste had been really nervous on stage and after she got done reading her poem, she felt a hand rest on her shoulder as if telling her that she did a good job. There was no one behind her and an employee told her it was something that Tee would do. The crew captured the sound of bongos playing, which is what Tee played.

The Ohio Club is located at 336 Central Avenue. The Ohio Club is Arkansas' oldest bar. This started as a bar and casino in 1905. Al Jolson performed at the club in 1915. Al Capone would frequent the place as did Bugsy Segel, Bugs Moran and Lucky Luciano during Prohibition. At the time, it was called the Ohio Cigar Store with 10 feet of the front being walled off to contain the cigar store and then there were two doors that led into the bar and upstairs to the casino.  In the 1930s, Mae West performed here. (Come up and see me sometime!) They continue the tradition of live performances. And hard to believe, but the casino and sports book remained open until 1967. Owners and employees claim that they have had unexplained experiences. Doors slam on their own, music is heard even though no music is playing and glasses are heard clinking.

The Malco Theatre is located at 817 Central Ave and is known as the Maxwell Blade Theater of Magic today. The Princess Theater originally sat on this spot and was built in 1910. It featured vaudeville acts and silent films, but that all ended on Christmas Eve of 1934. The theater caught fire and burned all the way down to its foundation. Rebuilding began immediately and this new rendition of the theater was larger and had an irregular shape. The architectural style was changed to art deco. The theater was sold to the Malco Theater Group and the name was changed to the Malco Theater and reopened in 1947. The Malco was segregated until 1964 with black patrons having a separate ticketing booth, separate entrance, separate concessions and they could only sit in the balcony. The theater has retained that separate entrance as a tribute to civil rights victories. The Malco mostly ran as a movie theater through the years until it was purchased in 1995 by magician Maxwell Blade. He completely renovated the building with new seating and a state-of-the-art sound and lighting system. Blade himself claims to have never seen a ghost in the theater, but he did hear a theater seat folding up and down when he was getting ready to leave the empty theater one night. When he went further into the theater to see what made the sound, he saw a shadow figure crossing the exit. He left quickly and it shook him enough that he wouldn't be in the theater alone at night for some time. And when he would bring his daughter to the theater years ago when she was only three, she would ask who the little boy was that was standing at the top of the theater’s staircase. Four people are said to have died in the theater and one was a little boy who died in the upstairs bathroom of the theater in the early 1970s.

Hot Springs is a cute little town with a history of healing and haunts. Are the Arlington Hotel and these locations in Hot Springs haunted? That is for you to decide!