Arkansas’ Crescent Hotel, located in Eureka Springs, in some state the name of which escapes me, is a former girls’ school and health spa which is reputed to be haunted. The hotel was at one point owned by a charlatan called Norman Baker, who claimed he could cure illnesses like cancer, and it has been suggested that it is haunted by, amongst others, the spirits of those who the fraudulent quack failed to cure.
Apparitions apparently include an Irish stonemason who was killed during the construction of the hotel in 1885, several of the good “doctor’s” patients, the quack himself, and even a cat called Morris. Guests claim to hear strange sounds in the night, objects are mysteriously moved from one place only to reappear in another, and emails from the past appear on people’s phones. Others claim to have had more direct contact with the ghosts. Quite a few have woken up in the middle of the night to find a strange figure wearing a nightgown standing at the foot of their bed, and one woman claimed that an unseen presence stroked her hair. While I cannot vouch for any of these claims, there is no denying that the Crescent haunted Hotel is one spooky-looking piece of architecture.
