crescentsockco history

Enlisting in 1861, he began as a captain in the 5th Kansas Infantry.

Pivotal in the setup of the Republican Party in Arkansas, Clayton was elected the first Republican Governor of Arkansas on July 2, 1868.

To add to his successful career, Clayton was elected to the United States Senate and moved to Washington, D.C., where he spent six years before returning to Little Rock in 1878.

The settlement was named Eureka Springs in the summer of 1879.

He served as president of the Little Rock, Mississippi, and Texas Railroad for a spell before returning to Eureka in 1880.

Norman Baker was born on November 27, 1882, in Muscatine, Iowa.

For nearly eighty years after the first locomotive steamed into town in 1883, travelers to the popular springs to drink and bathe in the ‘magic water’ were pulled up winding mountain tracks by those reliable steam engines.

One of the most prominent guests at the opening was James G. Blaine, former United States Congressman, United States Senator, Secretary of State and a candidate for president in 1884, who lost a close race to Grover Cleveland.

Initiating a series of thorough renovations that saw the building restored to its former glory, the couple proudly relaunched the location as the “1886 Crescent Hotel & Spa.” Thanks to their devout stewardship, its grand Gilded Age charm still exists for future generations to appreciate.

Concentric Romanesque arches are seen above many of the windows of the first floor of the Crescent as well as the Planters Hotel, which was opened in 1894 but later torn down.

After a few false starts Norman got his performance troupe off the ground in 1904.

The hotel was purchased by the Frisco Railroad in 1905 to build train ridership from the Chicago and St Louis areas.

In 1908, the Crescent College & Conservatory for Young Women opened for “fine young ladies.” It soon became one of the most exclusive boarding academies in Arkansas, training the minds of countless women who passed through its doors.

Momaday was born as Natachee Scott to a white father and Cherokee mother in 1913.

In 1920, Norman opened an art correspondence school, called the Tangley School.

On February 21, 1925, Claude Fuller, former mayor and United States Congressman from Arkansas’ Third District, and Albert G. Ingalls, Eureka Springs Mayor purchased the hotel.

In 1928 Baker legally received license to broadcast at 10,000 watts meaning his signal could reach well over 1 million homes.

In April of 1930, Norman Baker found himself in the crosshairs of Morris Fishbein and the American Medical Association.

Beginning in 1931 things began to unravel for Norman.

Due to slow business in the winter, Crescent College opened and provided education to females until 1934.

They quietly investigated him and in 1939 they closed in.

The trial was held in January of 1940 in Little Rock and Norman was found guilty on all seven counts.

He retired to Florida upon his release in 1944, and died impoverished a decade later.

After the Charlstan Baker was arrested and sentenced to four years in Leavenworth Federal Prison, the hotel was sold and renovated by Chicago businessmen in 1946.

Found in the "Ford Treasury of Favorite Recipes from Famous Eating Places" published by the Ford Motor Company of Dearborn, Michigan, in 1950, and distributed locally by Crow Motor Company of Eureka Springs was a recipe from the Crescent Hotel.

Returning home to the hotel he once owned, at the 1951 spring season gala opening, Claude Fuller, United States congressman and native of Eureka Springs, flew in from Washington, D.C. to be one of the guests of honor.

1970: Dwight O. Nicholas was the last surviving member of the Chicago consortium that had bought the Crescent Hotel nearly three decades prior.

Eventually, Momaday resigned from her post at the Jemez Pueblo School in 1971 in order to devote more time to her writing.

Then, in 1972, the hotel was sold to Crescent Heights Developments, Inc., owned by four investors—Doctor and Mrs.

The inscriptions and central emblem are appropriate for the Iranian flag in light of the religious basis of the country’s 1979 revolution and the sectarian regime subsequently established.…

In 1980, reorganization brought Riverview Management of Arkansas, Inc. in as a general partner.

Under the new management in 1985, Willie Nelson played to a sold-out crowd in the Crystal Ballroom and then-Governor Bill Clinton spoke to an annual chamber banquet.

The Wichita Federal Savings and Loan of Wichita, Kansas took possession in 1988 and then sold it to Gary and Carole Clawson.

In 1991, the government of Saddam Hussein built a series of dikes and dams to further drain the Iraqi marshes and punish dissident Marsh Arabs who made a living cultivating rice and raising water buffalo there.

In 1993, Natachee Scott Momaday passed away at the age of 83.

Fortunately, the Crescent Hotel finally saw an end to its cyclical period of ownership when Marty and Elise Roenigk purchased the business in 1997.

A member of Historic Hotels of America since 2007, this fantastic historic hotel is one of the best in all of Arkansas.

2011: The hotel achieved an important milestone when it celebrated its quasquicentennial (125th anniversary). The anniversary also marked 14 years of ever-flowing prosperity under the stewardship of the Roenigks.

Turkel was designated as the “2014 Historian of the Year by Historic Hotels of America,” the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.