Did you know? Stevens Balustrade
Made of white Alabama limestone, the stately Stevens Balustrade anchors the grand, formal entrance to the park, serving as the perfect backdrop to the twin fountains and stone columns beside Central Avenue between the historic Fordyce and Maurice bath houses.
It features a central shell fountain dispensing thermal spring water and flanking staircases leading visitors up to the Grand Promenade and the trails onto Hot Springs Mountain.
In 1891, an act of Congress provided funding for certain landscaping improvements at Hot Springs Reservation, primarily aimed at improving the overall appearance of Bathhouse Row.
Secretary of the Interior John W. Noble selected 1st Lt. Robert R. Stevens in the Quartermaster’s Office at the Army and Navy General Hospital to be the “Reservation Improvements Officer,” charged with planning and coordinating the work to be accomplished. Lt. Stevens received his first written instructions from Secretary Noble in May 1892, which included a call to clean up and formalize the appearance of the foreground buildings and mountain backgrounds. Stevens immediately contacted the design firm of famed landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to enlist their aid in planning the improvements. Ultimately, this partnership never developed and Stevens was forced to create his own design plans for the project.
Hence, his name was eventually enshrined on the masonry structure for posterity.
Stevens’ design for the formal entrance called for a series of stone components starting curbside on what is today called Central Avenue and reaching up the hillside to the level of the carriage road onto Hot Springs Mountain from the Army and Navy Hospital grounds. At that level a bandstand pavilion was erected to cap the park’s official point of entry.
The Stevens Balustrade was completed in 1894 and has been beckoning visitors to climb Hot Springs Mountain ever since.
Source: Hot Springs National Park. Historic photos courtesy of Hot Springs National Park.