Reviving a hospital
In 1882, a party was held on the second floor of the Palace Bathhouse at Hot Springs. The host was Dr. A.S. Garnett, a former surgeon in the Confederate Army. The guest of honor was John A. Logan, a former Union general who had found his way to the U.S. Senate from Illinois. The senator was impressed by the city’s mineral waters and told those at the party that he would introduce legislation to build a military hospital at Hot Springs.
Logan’s likeness appears on the statue at the center of Logan Circle in Washington, D.C., and also in Grant Park in Chicago. Counties in Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado and North Dakota are named for him. He’s one of three people mentioned in the Illinois state song. During the Civil War, Logan’s unit was the first to enter Vicksburg, Miss. Logan then served as the city’s military governor.
After Logan’s 1882 visit to Hot Springs, Congress appropriated $100,000 to build a joint military hospital. It was the first in the country to serve both the Army and Navy. The hospital came under the direct jurisdiction of the U.S. secretary of war. The 30-bed facility opened to patients in January 1887. The hospital would soon be among the nation’s leading centers for dealing with arthritis. During World War II, it was also the largest facility in the country treating adults with infantile paralysis.
The massive structure that now overlooks downtown Hot Springs was built during the early 1930s at a cost of almost $1.5 million. Thousands of soldiers during World War II and in the years after the war were sent to Hot Springs for hydrotherapy treatments.
According to the Central Arkansas Library System’s Encyclopedia of Arkansas: “The influx of injured soldiers taxed the Hot Springs facilities. To have more beds and space for added staff, the federal government bought the Eastman Hotel across the street from the main hospital. A ramp linked the buildings, and the number of beds available for patients tripled almost overnight. This gave the hospital badly needed space for recreational and reconditioning projects, in addition to providing space for overnight family visitors. Along with solders being treated for war injuries, servicemen from battle zones were sent to Hot Springs for rest, relaxation and rehabilitation.
“The Arlington and Majestic hotels housed the overflow soldiers who couldn’t be accommodated elsewhere. At its peak from the late 1940s into the early 1950s, the hospital was one of the top five employers in Garland County. The military era ended on April 1, 1960, when the facility was turned over to the state of Arkansas to become a rehabilitation hospital. Hot Springs Rehabilitation Center became a full-scale rehabilitation facility run by Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, one of nine of its kind in the nation and the only one west of the Mississippi River.”
In 2007, what’s known as the Army and Navy General Hospital District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2009, the facility became the Arkansas Career Training Institute with a focus on vocational training. Last year, as part of Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s reorganization of state government, it was announced that the state would abandon the 20-acre campus. Buildings were empty by July 1 of this year.
A deed had conveyed the property from the U.S. Army to the state in 1960. The 1959 congressional enabling act stated that the property would revert to the Army if the secretary of the Army determined it was no longer being used for health or educational purposes.
The secretary won’t determine if it belongs to the U.S. government until he hears from the Interior Department. Since last year, a group of Hot Springs business and civic leaders has been working to find a use for the campus. With the revitalization of downtown picking up steam, the last thing Hot Springs needs now is an empty, decaying complex overlooking the resort city.
“Once the Army hears from the Interior Department, they will proceed accordingly, either transferring it to the Interior Department or taking it themselves,” says Rachel Patton of Preserve Arkansas. “At that point, the Army would have those caretaker responsibilities. They’ve already said they don’t want it. They would immediately report to the General Services Administration, and GSA would essentially act as the real estate broker for the Department of the Army. And they would be trying to dispose of this as surplus property.”
Here’s the good news for Hot Springs: Earlier this year, Congress approved the landmark Great American Outdoors Act. It will provide the National Park Service, the part of the Interior Department that operates Hot Springs National Park, with $6.5 billion during the next five years to start clearing up a maintenance backlog at national parks across the country. It stands to reason that part of the huge appropriation could be used to transfer the former hospital to the NPS and make it part of Hot Springs National Park.
In addition to restoring a portion of the main building to look like it once did while offering public tours, there could be an aggressive effort to lease other parts of the complex. With Hot Springs’ growing focus on the arts and culinary pursuits, the NPS should think big. I would suggest striving for things such as a branch of the Savannah College of Art and Design and a Johnson & Wales University culinary school.
All six members of the state’s congressional delegation must work together now to see that the transfer to NPS occurs. Time’s a wastin’.