Crescent Hotel

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One of the most well-known haunted hotels in America, the Crescent hotel has a history that just requires there to be ghosts and haunts associated with it. And the Crescent has plenty. The site of a former hospital run by a con artist who had previously been convicted of practicing medicine without a license, the fraudulent sawbones promised a cure for cancer. Patients walked in on their own two feet and were carried out feet first. Deaths were so numerous that the basement housed its own morgue, which is a main tourist attraction now, sharing space with the hotel’s day spa. Ghost sightings and stories are numerous and not limited to the Crescent’s stint as a health facility, there are also ghosts who date from its construction and its time as a girls’ school. Room 218 is said to be one of the most haunted rooms and it is claimed that this is where a former construction worker died when he fell, striking his head on a stone lintel. In addition room 419 is said to be haunted by a female ghost they call Theodora and rooms 202 and 424 are said to be haunted as well. Staff also claim that apparitions routinely walk the halls, especially nurses seen pushing people in wheelchairs. The hotel offers a nightly ghost tour that will take you through the hotel, pointing out all the rooms and stories associated with the building and ending up in the former morgue turned maintenance room.

We have stayed twice in the Crescent hotel, in rooms 218 and 202. Neither time did anything of a spooktacular nature occur. Well one thing did occur: the jacuzzi tub turned on all by itself in the middle of the night. At first, we thought this was interesting, however on inspecting the bathroom (including the electrical outlet that had been sawed in half in order to fit it into the space right next to the tub) we determined that the jacuzzi turning on was more to do with the very scary electrical wiring than any scary supernatural occurrence. The hotel is old and shabby and in dire need of repairs, with holes in the carpet and peeling paint and the elevator at the time of this writing (Spring 2013) was out of service as it is being “renovated” for over a year and a half now. Apparently none of the money they are making on their ghost tours, fairly high room fees and merchandising is being put back into the hotel. If you are considering staying here, pack lightly and be prepared to climb stairs.

If you've had a paranormal experience here, or have any additional information about this location, please let us know!



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    Geographic Information

    Address:
    75 Prospect Ave
    Eureka Springs AR 72632
    United States

    Get Directions »
    GPS:
    36.40830147934259, -93.737261826181
    County:
    Carroll County, Arkansas
    Nearest Towns:
    Eureka Springs, AR (0.5 mi.)
    Beaver, AR (4.8 mi.)
    Holiday Island, AR (5.3 mi.)
    Chain-O-Lakes, MO (8.7 mi.)
    Golden, MO (9.3 mi.)
    Lost Bridge Village, AR (9.5 mi.)
    Eagle Rock, MO (9.7 mi.)
    Berryville, AR (9.9 mi.)
    Arrow Point, MO (11.5 mi.)
    Emerald Beach, MO (12.1 mi.)

    Contact Information

    Telephone:
    877-342-9766
    Web:
    http://www.crescent-hotel.com/
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    Comments (42)

    3. We’ve got an unexplainable photo to prove it. The skeptic in me thinks it has to be a camera malfunction. I took the picture but personally, I really don’t know. It’s almost too perfect to be real. The next time we go down there we are going to give a copy to the hotel. Then you guys can judge it for yourselves.

    4. Have been on the tour twice. Never experienced much of anything personally. Some friends had a few experiences. The overall feeling in Eureka Springs at night is different. Just kind of eerie to me but enjoyed it.

    6. Took the ghost tour with some friends. I felt very different down in the morgue. There was an immense feeling of somber and even a very sad and lonely feeling. I felt very moved by the loneliness and loss of lives that would have been lived. I felt this same way only once before when I when to Dachau, the German concentration camp.

    7. Went to the Crescent last weekend for the first time. I loved the ghost tour. Miss Peaches couldn’t have been a better guide. I highly recommend it. I cannot wait to go back and spend the night. We had no experiences to speak of but a couple ppl in the group got orbs in the photos and one girl had a mist. LAlso standing in the hall outside room 218, the unoccupied door next to it opened with out help. I believe this was a closet. The EMF meter wigged out at the bottom of the stairs where a child fell ad again in the morgue. I do recall feeling a strong since of sadness while being locked in the old freezer but im sure this was just from the knowledge of knowing what sheer awfulness had occurred there.

    9. I have been going to the Crescent since I was a little girl! We would go stay for the weekend or just drive up on the weekend for Sunday brunch. I absolutely love this place. It is an amazing hotel with absolutely interesting history. I have been on the ghost tour a few times and love it. The only thing that I have experienced is what I find in my photos. Many of them with orbs, black masses, and unexplained streaks in them. I truly believe that this place is haunted…..

    14. The area that is shown in this video was an apartment years ago. I had the pleasure of living in it 2 Seasons in the late 80’s. My step dad was a musician & played at the hotel. In return they rented us the MORGUE. My brother & I used the pull outs for our dressers. It was definitely 2 summers I will never forget. I spent many nights in the lobby sleeping on one of the sofas due to the moaning & growling sounds I would hear. And for some reason the ghost down there didn’t approve of our TV being on. It constantly turned it off. Living there shaped my future… I went on to College and became a Mortician. I visited the hotel years ago & took the GHOST TOUR…but was asked to give my green dot back within the 1st 20 minutes of the Tour. I kept correcting the GUIDE & telling him he was wrong. I lived there…I knew what I was talking about…. Lol. I’m glad to see they have admitted the MORGUE existed. My guide said it had no MORGUE.

    15. I feel bad for my brother, he works at the hotel, in the basement, but when I went in let me say it was creepy, like noises every were

    16. I went on Halloween night with my buddy, we had the best pizza i have ever had at the restaurant at the top, and they held a special event due to it being Halloween and there was a seance and i got chosen to participate in it. I now believe in ghosts and spirits due to the Crescent Hotel.

    18. Sherryl Garoutte  |  
      Reply ↓

      Worked on the restoration of the Crescent Hotel for abt 2 yrs. I was part of the painting crew . In that time I would be there many times late at night trying to get a room done so it could be rented. I had 3 occasions where I felt a presence and then shortly thereafter something lightly touch my shoulder . I saw a few times a sort of wispy floating prpresence…mostly in the hallways. The morgue area made me feel uncomfortable.

    19. I went there twice during the day on 6-17-17 an never saw anything an they say stuff happens during the day but me an my sister never saw anything we were hoping to but nothing happened

    20. My wife and I stayed in Room 218 – Michael’s room – on our honeymoon in early November 2014. It was dumb luck we even got the room and we had no idea of its history until we took the ghost tour that night. While on the tour we saw an odd mist from an upper balcony and kept smelling a cherry cigar smoke. Likewise some things were misplaced in the room itself and the shower temperature changed without warning. All stuff I could explain away easily enough.

      Two things happened that were not easy to explain. The first happened immediately before and after the tour. There is a door leading out to the balcony outside the room and it has to be locked from the inside. I took care of that myself right before the tour. During the tour itself the guide decided to do some EVP and try to contact, of course, Michael while in the morgue. Nothing happened there but, when we got back, I’ll be flummoxed if that door wasn’t pushed open from the inside (see the picture taken right as we got in the room).

      The second thing happened later that night. I had passed out on the bed, exhausted after our big night, and woke up at one point to notice we’d left one of the curtains up. Desiring privacy, I got up to put the curtain down. As I walked toward it, there was a sensation like static electricity up to my mid-calves and it got stronger the closer I got. Ignoring it, I put the curtain down. At that moment one of the legs on my pajama pants raised and lowered on its own. Just like that.

      Unless the hotel staff install some kind of high tech wizardry to make your stay in Michael’s room live up to its legend I’ve got nothing.

    23. I visited for the first time October 6, 2018 with two of my gal pals. I can’t speak for them, but, they both at points, felt dread, tired, and sick while roaming the halls and floors. I seemed okay through it all but did have some points that interested me. One was when I was searching for room 419, I had a thought come to me that said that I didn’t need to find the room it was just a door; little odd, but if you know where 419 is, it is tucked oddly behind penthouse stairs and is kind of creepy. I spoke to a butler, who was a pizza delivery kid. This one was the oddest and explainable event for me. My one friend was with me, about 20 steps behind on the 2nd floor. There is a little staircase about the middle of the building, which I would call a butlers stairs, but don’t really know. Well, I looked towards the left over the top of those stairs and when I panned back there was a butler there. I looked at his face, neatly groomed hair and folded hands about waist height. He asked me, “may I help you find something?”, which I said, “no, I am just checking things out”. All normal right? Well, he was between my friend and I, after I responded, I turned and walked toward the front balcony but out of the corner of my eye, I noticed, he wasn’t a butler, he was a kid in skinny jeans delivering pizzas. I saw 2 cardbard boxes. I thought it was odd, why a pizza guy would ask me and the tone didn’t sound like “hip” slang. But I went on my way and so did he. My friend says she only say pizza guy, he never looked at her and that he asked me “did you order a pizza?”, which she thought was odd. Then he said, “I must be on the wrong floor” and headed down the lil stairs. She smelled pizza, I never did and that is not what he asked me. I never heard him say that he was on the wrong floor, to me he was a helpful butler but my mind caught glimpse of pizza kid. Did I see and speak to apparition using pizza guy? I don’t know, but I would like to go back and see if I can again. I know what I saw and heard and didn’t smell. Pretty amazing place which I do believe has it’s oddities.

    25. I like to go and stay at haunted hotels or bed and breakfast places and do my own private investigations. Spent Christmas vacationing here at The Crescent 5 years ago. It did not dissapoint! I have got one of my best paranormal photos on the hallways there and the most terrifying night at room 218, ended up leaving the room at 3:45am….too much stuff malfunctioning, being knocked around, loud bang on the wall. Felt completely unwelcome, so I just left. No EVP’s or images on photos or video, just stuff mysteriously being knocked off its place and elecronics/appliances malfunctioning the entire time I was there. Also recommend the Basin Hotel, they too have paranormal activity there.

      • When it was built in 1886, It was America’s finest resort, shortly after, it was turned into an all women’s college for quite a few years, until in 1937, Norman Baker bought the building and turned it into a “Cancer Hospital” where he claimed he found the cure for cancer, when in reality, he didn’t know at all and used a fake cure and inject the fake cure into patients bodies 5-7 times a day. In the hospital, there was also a psych ward for patients who refused to believe the cure worked. In total 44 documented deaths occurred in the hotel. Norman Baker was found out and spent a few years in prison and had to pay a $4000 fine and later lived the rest of his life in Florida with millions of dollars.

    27. I went down here before, I was in a hallway and my family was with me. We are standing in the middle of the hallway and we hear a knock. No one was around, plus, the knock was in the middle of the air. I didn’t know the atmosphere can harden to a colorless solid and create knocking sounds when it feels threatened. After that, I took pictures in more hallways, I found (in total) 8 orbs, 2 sightings of mist, and 2 human apparitions. The pictures are on my SD card, when I’m not lazy enough, I’ll upload them.

    28. Since the gang went here about a year ago, we’v enever been the same. Velma is quite odd now. She felt a static effect on her leg then went insane. Daphne started screaming in the night. Scooby has been alright but shaggy randomly stopped eating. He’s doing fine he just doesn’t eat. We’re all scarred for life from this experience.

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