The Crescent Hotel: Facing my Fears!

Our room at the Crescent Hotel, across the
hall from room #202 which has "ghostly" events.

About ten days ago Clint and I planned a much needed little vacation.  When one's home has been on the market for six months, a few days away are in order.  Branson came to mind, we had never been there before and also spending one night in Eureka Springs. We like Eureka Springs and had been there several times.  I had remembered reading about The Crescent Hotel and the claims it was haunted.  We had driven by it and I had remembered thinking I could never spend the night in such a place.  I have had a phobia of haunted places, I am not sure why, maybe too many scary movies and tv shows as a child.  As Clint has written about, we did have some strange happenings at one of our other residences. This only served to increase my phobia.

We arrive safely at the magnificent Crescent Hotel,
affectionately referred to as "Grand Old Lady of the Ozarks".

I had actually joked about spending the night at the Crescent, joked about it because the last thing I needed was stress on a vacation.  A few days later Clint said he had made the reservations, printed them out and that they were on our kitchen table.  I could not believe my eyes, he had made a reservation at The Crescent Hotel!  Now I had to go and face my fears!

A side view of the hotel ... the purple chimneys are from
the days of  Dr. Norman Baker, purple being his favorite color.

We arrived early Thursday afternoon.  I took a deep breath and walked into the lobby.  There was a fire burning in the fireplace, old Christmas songs and hymns were playing and there was an art gallery near the lobby!  So far so good. I was feeling so relaxed at this point I was able to buy a ticket to the Ghost Tour that began at 8:00 that evening.  Clint passed on the tour.

The front desk area of the Crescent Hotel, notice the
roses painted on the inside of the safe's doors.

We got on the elevator and I thought "surely this elevator has been inspected recently".  (The hotel was built in 1886)  We were on the second floor and liked our room, it also had a small balcony and a wonderful view out back.

When was the last time you
saw one of these in an elevator?

Later that evening, it was beginning to get dusky dark outside when I heard some faint music, the first thing that came to  mind was it was from a Victorian music box.  Clint said it sounded like "mountain dulcimer" music.  It was increasing in volume as I walked out onto the balcony to investigate ...

Our balcony outside our room ...

To be continued ...


Clint wrote about his experience at the Crescent on his blog, Lyrics of Love and Lore.