Main Street History (page 3)
In the 1890s the Webb and Brown’s steam flouring mill was located on North Main near the trail that led to Magnetic Spring. By 1914, after years of being vacant, the land was the site of a wood planing mill. Down the trail through the hollow was the popular Magnetic Spring. It was claimed that any metal object placed in the spring water would become magnetized and that exclusive use of the water would cure physical debility and aid in overcoming drug addiction. The Tourist Social Hour Club, a group concerned with the entertainment of tourists, met regularly here from 1885 to 1935. Magnetic Springs was originally owned by General Powell Clayton and deeded to the City of Eureka Springs in 1911. At that time, workmen were hand-excavating 38 feet into the side of the mountain to open the main stream of water. The picnic pavilion was left in place, and a new wood and stone shelter built over the spring. This was restored in the 1980s and the lovely gardens maintained by the ES Parks Commission.
The Power Plant and Ice House.
This once fine structure is awaiting restoration to its glory days. In 1891, a franchise was granted to ES Electric Light and Street Railway Company giving them the right to construct a power plant and furnish electricity to private consumers and to provide street lighting and a street railway here. It was powered by coal-fired steam boilers. An Ice House was added later and by 1908 could produce four tons of ice daily with 6400 square feet of cold storage. The ice delivery wagon was a welcome sight to local children in +
the summer, as the driver could always be counted on for a free icicle, a fine treat! In the 1940s, the building housed the Ozark Food Processing Company, maker of Bunny Pot Pies and other packaged foods.
“The Roundhouse” was part of the large investment in infrastructure made by the Eureka Springs Improvement Company. This fine round structure of local limestone was originally the gas works. Later this building and the one next door were the bottling works for the Eureka Springs Water Company, which sold their patented “Ozarka” water nationally. By 1907 they were shipping four train tanks of Ozarka water each week, with local sales totaling the equivalent of two more train cars. The water was from Bays and Magnetic Springs near the train depot.
Transportation into Eureka Springs was one of the first problems to be solved after the rush to the healing springs in 1879. In 1880 the Eureka Springs Rail Road Company of Arkansas formed to connect with the Frisco Rail Road in Missouri. Before this new route was done, the nearest connection was Pierce City, MO -- a nine- hour stage coach ride! In 1883 the first depot was completed and up to six through passenger trains ran daily to Eureka Springs --a convenience not enjoyed by any other resort in the southwest! Passengers were taken to their lodgings by livery wagons, then mule-drawn street cars, and by 1899 in electric street cars. In 1914 a new limestone depot was built here, but the offices and maintenance shops were moved to Harrison. Passenger service ended in 1923 and all service in the 1950s. In the 1980s, the Robert Dortch family brought back the train as the Eureka Springs & North Arkansas Railroad, a short-line scenic ride. Remnants of the trestle crossing the White River and “The Narrows” through the mountain still remain at Beaver, a small town to the northwest.
“Going Up…”
The original geography of Main Street featured a deep ravine cut by the creek. Platforms covered it in places. Buildings on the edge of Main had pedestrian bridges like the one at Basin Bath House in both the front and rear for easier passage from First Street.
Main Street still has many of the stairways leading other streets on the mountains above on both sides:
First Street, which runs parallel to Main Street after the Grand Central Hotel: adjacent to The ARTery outdoor gallery, behind the Courthouse, behind the Bank of Eureka Springs – all leading up to Armstrong Street.
Basin Spring Avenue:connecting to Spring Street
Walker Bros. Stairs: across from Mud Street Station, connecting to Center Street
Tibbs Alley: across from the Grand Central Hotel, connecting to Center Street
East Side:Jacob’s Ladder, 200 steps connecting three streets behind the Bergdorf Block, leading to Cold Spring or the springs on Steele/Douglas Streets.
West Side:Gadd Spring stairs: connecting to Center Street
Rock House Stairs: across from The Auditorium, leading up to Benton Street (Connecting walking trails and stairs are in process for the northern part of North Main Street.)
Water and Springs
Main Street and East Mountain have several springs of note. Most of the springs have large spring reservations
– land set aside in perpetuity for the protection of their waters.
From North to South:
Calif Spring (earlier named Table Rock Spring) is next to the ES Historical Museum.
Cave Spring originates from a small cave on Douglas Street with the mountain behind as its large reservation.
Little Lake Eureka was the city’s first water supply made by damming the spring-fed lake. Later this was the first swimming hole for the town’s guests and sported a large dance platform, bathhouse and concessions.
Little Eureka Spring. This spring’s water gained fame when it took second prize at the Saint Louis World’s Fair as the “purest water in the world.”
Carry A. Nation Spring: the famed temperance leader whose boarding house is across the street saw this spring in a vision and had it blasted out. The spring and cave behind it served the neighborhood as a refrigerator.
Onyx (or Laundry) Spring was noted for its onyx stalactites (harvested for jewelry) and as the feeder spring that accommodated neighborhood washing.
Gadd Spring was not an original reservation; it was given to the city in 1905.Behind the Grand Central Hotel is a scenic loop walk past several water features.
Iron and Sulphur Springs near Mill Hollow Road no longer a reservation but it borders The Art Colony with its own wellspring of inspiration.
Bays Spring. Ozarka Water began here in Eureka Springs, with the water pumped from Bays
(behind the depot, not accessible at this time) and
Magnetic Spring. An early popular spring reached by a rough trail. In 1911 it was opened up and a pavilion was built, which was restored in the 1980s.
Conway Spring lies on Armstrong Street behind the Bank of Eureka Springs. It too has a large reservation on the mountain above.
Leatherwood Creek, a tributary of the White River flows along North Main Street.
More Information
There are 39 bronze plaques with historical information and photographs located throughout the Historic District as well as numerous interpretative signs.
The Eureka Springs Preservation Society publishes a booklet, Six Scenic Walking Tours in Historic Eureka Springs. It is available for $2 at the ES Historical Museum, Carnegie Public Library and shops around town. There are also several other pictorial books about Eureka Springs available at these locations. The Historical Museum, located at 95 S. Main Street offers a deeper view into local history. (A small admission fee is charged.)
Photographs courtesy of the Bank of Eureka Springs and the Eureka Springs Historical Museum.
This material is based upon work assisted by a grant from the US Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Preserve America grant. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Interior.
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