(A Picture Tour)
It is beautiful here in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Today, my family and I walked around, amid dreary and foggy weather, to the various shops and vintage buildings of the downtown area.
This is the Arlington Hotel. It
burned down once, maybe twice, and was rebuilt more than one time. Inside, the
hotel walls are covered with awful yellow paint and bordered in hospital white.
The walls are eerily bare and the hotel doors an evergreen shade. Contrary to
its degrading condition, the main rooms are actually quite nice. Near the
lobby, a bar faces a sitting area where drinks are served to laughing customers
as they chat below a dome-shaped ceiling. The ceiling is amazing. It climbs
higher and higher to a dull point and decorated with gold trim. Who knows how
many years of dust lie up there.
I took these pictures today and added an old-fashioned effect to them.
I thought it added to the character of the building.
Looking at these pictures instigates intrigue and mystery.
This is the feeling I felt while touring.
This is the inside.
The bathroom: can't you just see a lady, engulfed in corsets and petticoats, powdering her nose in front of this grand mirror? Er, disregard the soap dispenser.
This door serves as the entrance to some dime and penny shop now, but in its heyday, what was its purpose? The word “Hotel” was left out of the shot, but it hung just above the “Entrance”. Before even the hotel, whom did the door serve? Could be a young married couple residing above their shop. Possibly a home for young soldiers to reside during leave.
When I look at these buildings, with their broken down windows, glass broken, rooms inside distorted by layers of filth, fascination draws me to explore. How many secrets are locked away inside those forgotten walls? How many dreams discarded until only they remember them? How many promises broken? How many mysteries left unsolved? How many romances shattered?
Oh, I just love the architecture of this one. The way it looms, sturdy and intimidating; jutting fearlessly into the sky. It is truly breathtaking.
Now this I did not photograph. Unfortunately. In fact, I don't think I was even born when this picture was taken. It is of the Pullman Hotel. I believe the bottom portion of the establishment now serves as the Gangster Museum. I thought it was classy: an excellent example of buildings way back when.
The most eerie, creepy,
spine-tingling aspect of our entire trip thus far has been this. For the years
we have been coming to this place, one house in particular has always drawn us
with its…well, its creepiness. Our first night here, we went searching for this
house and came to a lane of houses like it. They were all at least sixty or
seventy years old, with peeling paint on the extended porches and elegant towers
that sharpened to points.
But we were unprepared for this.
What kind of a caution sign is
this?
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