Eureka Springs
The Entire Downtown Is Listed On The National Register Of Historic Places As A Historic District One Of A Small Number Of Whole Town Listings In The United States. Founded 1879 Around More Than Sixty Springs Credited With Healing Properties. · Eureka Springs, Arkansas
Eureka Springs is a Victorian spa town built into the side of an Ozark hill so steep that its streets loop back over themselves and several buildings have a ground-floor entrance on more than one level. It boomed in the 1880s on the reputation of more than sixty springs said to cure everything, and when that reputation collapsed the town was too poor and too awkwardly sited to modernise - which is why the entire downtown survives and is listed on the National Register as a single historic district. There are no chain shops in the historic loop. The 1886 Crescent Hotel sits above it all, having been a luxury hotel, a girls' school and, in the 1930s, a fraudulent cancer hospital run by a man with no medical training, which is the source of most of the ghost stories told on the evening tours. It is a genuine out-of-state draw from Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas, and it is busiest on the weekends they drive in.
Historic Downtown, Spring Street, Eureka Springs, Arkansas, 72632, United States
The town is a town - the streets are open at all hours and the historic loop can be walked at any time. Independent shops and galleries mostly keep daytime hours and many close one or two weekdays, especially in winter; restaurants and bars run later. The trolley service runs on a seasonal timetable and is reduced or suspended in winter. Several attractions around the town, including the outdoor drama and some tours, are seasonal and close from late autumn to spring. Confirm before travelling out of season.