Early Arkansas lodgings
Arecent trip to the River Market area in Little Rock reminded me that a large number of fine new hotels have been built in that popular district. These sleek hotels are but the most recent of long chain of inns and hotels that have populated that area along the Arkansas River stretching back almost two centuries. Indeed, inns, taverns, and hotels go back to the early years of the Arkansas Territory, but those havens for travelers bore little similarity to the modern hotel.
While information is scanty, I suspect it was lawyers riding the legal circuit who comprised much of the traveling public in early Arkansas. Land speculators also criss-crossed the state regularly, providing a clientele for early innkeepers.
The earliest reference I have found of a visitor to Arkansas renting a room dates to 1819 when naturalist Thomas Nuttall took lodging at a crude tavern at Cadron on the Arkansas River near modern Conway. The log structure contained two rooms, with several guests being lodged in each room. Nuttall complained of the others drinking whiskey and gambling until late at night.
Nuttall’s comments were mild compared to those of British-born geologist George W. Featherstonhaugh who came to Arkansas in 1834 on the cusp of statehood. In Hot Springs, Featherstonhaugh had to stay in a room with no furniture. Scott Akridge, who wrote the entry on Featherstonhaugh for the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture, described the evening: “A rainy, windy night followed. Rain poured in … from holes in the roof, and the local pigs gathered under the floor space for protection from the storm.”
The Hinderliter Grog Shop at the Historic Arkansas Museum is probably the oldest surviving structure in Little Rock. The log building was constructed in 1826-27 by Jesse Hinderliter using red oak logs and cypress flooring. It not only served as a residence for Hinderliter, his wife, and two enslaved workers, but it was a major lodging for early visitors to Little Rock. The clapboards which clothe the Hinderliter structure are a modern addition.
Another very early Arkansas inn is the William Looney Tavern on Eleven Point River in northwestern Randolph County. Here is how historian and preservation consultant Joan L. Gould described the tavern: “Thought to have been built [circa 1833] as a rural tavern or inn, it may have served area settler William Looney’s distillery as well. It is the only surviving structure on the farmstead Looney established prior to 1815 on land that would become Arkansas. When he died in 1846, he was one of the wealthiest men in the county, with extensive land holdings, 13 slaves, livestock, and a distillery producing apple brandy.”
Not all inn keepers were men, and not all were white. Mary John, who was born a slave in the 1780s when Arkansas was a part of Spanish Louisiana, gained her freedom in 1840 and opened a hotel and tavern at Arkansas Post in 1846. John’s inn was famous throughout southeast Arkansas due to the extraordinary meals. Indeed, she became a prominent caterer and was especially known for feeding the crowds at July 4th celebrations.
The Union Hotel served visitors to the Mississippi River port city of Helena in the early 1830s. This was a real hotel, with a large sitting room offering reading material including the Arkansas Gazette and the New Orleans Bulletin. Like most early inns, the Union offered a bar to its clients—but it was probably unusual in offering peppermint and Staunton bitters to mix with the whiskey.
One of the Little Rock hotels that is frequently mentioned in Arkansas history textbooks is the Anthony House. Its claim to fame is that it served as the headquarters for the forces of ousted Gov. Elisha Baxter during the Brooks-Baxter War, a bloody little political contest that ended Reconstruction in Arkansas.
In 1841 Major James C. Anthony leased a recently rebuilt three-story brick hotel at the southwest corner of Second and Markham streets and named it after himself. An 1843 advertisement for the Anthony House boasted of a dining room 60 feet long, two parlors, and 28 bedrooms. In 1845 Anthony claimed to offer “accommodations unsurpassed by any establishment west of the Alleghenies . . . .”
Appealing to the mainly male traveling public, Anthony said his “ales, wines, liquors, and segars are the best that the New Orleans market can afford.” To clinch the appeal, he promised “ice sufficient for the whole season.”
Just as modern hotels have to provide parking for automobiles, early innkeepers provided stables for horses. The Anthony House boasted of “commodious brick stables under the management of Mr. David Skelton.” Lodgers could rent carriages, buggies, and horses. The Anthony House burned in 1875.