AP Features, April 16th, 2007
The National Park Service and developers have signed a lease that should lead to the reopening of one of Hot Springs National Park's eight historic bathhouses.
Quapaw Baths LLC signed the 55-year lease with the National Park Service to operate the Quapaw Bathhouse, the largest of the bathhouses that figured prominently in the popularity of Hot Springs as a resort town in the first half of the 1900s. The lease was approved by the Park Service in February.
Hot Springs is celebrating the 175th anniversary of the creation of Hot Springs Reservation this month. Congress created the reservation in 1832 in order to preserve the springs, which even back then were sought by people seeking cures. The reservation was a precursor to the national park, which was established in 1921. The bathhouses, built between 1911 and 1939, served both wealthy health-seekers as well as veterans and the indigent.
The mineral springs' appeal as a health measure declined in the 1950s with the elimination of polio and other scientific advances.
Today, while spa visits are no longer seen as cures for disease, upscale spas around the country have become popular destinations for contemporary Americans who see treatments like soaks and massages as antidotes to stress.
Don Harper, one of five partners in Quapaw Baths LLC, said the company will invest about $2 million in the Quapaw building. Extensive renovations and demolition at the bathhouse will begin soon, he said.
Harper said the work would preserve the building's original Spanish Mission Revival style. The updated bathhouse will have a public bathing pool, full spa services, semiprivate baths, public conference rooms and a gift shop, he said.
The bathhouse will open in phases, with the lobby and the gift shop set to open this fall. The baths should open to the public in the spring of 2008, he said.
Among the other historic bathhouses, the Fordyce is used as the park's visitors center and has a museum about Hot Springs' history, while the Buckstaff operates as a traditional bathhouse with tub soaks and massages.
Details at http://www.nps.gov/hosp/.
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