Hot Springs Arkansas

[Guest verymarried]

While there are some travel/moving-related threads going on this forum I thought I would throw out a quick thread with little hope of getting much response. Though I do not live there, my work has taken me to Hot Springs, Arkansas many times. The center of town is a historic spa and vacation spot with old bath houses, historic hotels, Victorian houses, rich architecture and beautiful mountains and waterfalls. It has a storied history which tells of Capone and fellow mobsters bathing in the hot water and running wide open illegal gambling for decades. It also is very run down. Historic hotels are closed or for sale, old buildings empty and endangered. Real estate prices are very low. There is an art community here and a series of galleries, and a great film festival and several music festivals. There is a horse race track and many lakes for recreation. For years I have struggled how to save the city - locals just don't appreciate the architecture and potential for a great quality of life the historic buildings represent. I finally realized that what Hot Springs needs is a gay community. It is s perfect town to be invaded by gays. The price is right, the future has nowhere to go but up, the potential is very cool. Arkansas is red and fundamentalism is out there, but Bill Clinton graduated from Hot Springs High School so everyone there is not bad! Well I've made my pitch. Thanks for the forum to do so.

[bigvalboy]

While there are some travel/moving-related threads going on this forum I thought I would throw out a quick thread with little hope of getting much response. Though I do not live there, my work has taken me to Hot Springs, Arkansas many times. The center of town is a historic spa and vacation spot with old bath houses, historic hotels, Victorian houses, rich architecture and beautiful mountains and waterfalls. It has a storied history which tells of Capone and fellow mobsters bathing in the hot water and running wide open illegal gambling for decades. It also is very run down. Historic hotels are closed or for sale, old buildings empty and endangered. Real estate prices are very low. There is an art community here and a series of galleries, and a great film festival and several music festivals. There is a horse race track and many lakes for recreation. For years I have struggled how to save the city - locals just don't appreciate the architecture and potential for a great quality of life the historic buildings represent. I finally realized that what Hot Springs needs is a gay community. It is s perfect town to be invaded by gays. The price is right, the future has nowhere to go but up, the potential is very cool. Arkansas is red and fundamentalism is out there, but Bill Clinton graduated from Hot Springs High School so everyone there is not bad! Well I've made my pitch. Thanks for the forum to do so.

 

And a damn good pitch it was. You would not be the first to see and take advantage of a depressed area that was well past its prime, and turn it around into a place of desired destinations. First of all it sounds absolutely wonderful, though the thought of living in Arkansas scares me. Years and years ago, OK years and years and years ago, I used to water ski in Lake Havasu. There was nothing there, besides a couple of gas stations, a store and a few motels.

 

All of a sudden, along comes this guy Bob McCulloch who decided to buy the London Bridge, ship it piece by piece to the middle of the desert and start a resort. Besides being called crazy and a thousand other names as everyone laughed at him, he built it anyway. Today.....well today, as a boating resort, it has on several occasions been called the "Hot boat capital of the world" even surpassing Miami for 'go fasts'....I had a second home there for years...you just never know.

[gallahadesquire]

My parents had some houses in Hot Springs Village, about 20 milers from the center of Hot Sorings. To say I would never voluntarily return is an understatement.

 

The locals won't change and the Snowbirds of HSV don't give a damn.

 

One amusing anecdote: we were looking for a nursing home for my Mother. We had been given directions, including the "Hi Rise" as a landmark. The high rise was 6 stories tall.

 

I just can't see it. HSV was a vacation development with seven, I think, man-made lakes, complete with water moccasins. So basically: it won't happen in my lifetime.

[nate_sf]

Maybe it's time to establish a Southern Hooville/Daddy's Forum weekend? You could schedule it to coincide with the film festival, for the film nerds among us.

 

Palm Springs is another example of a place that got a gay invasion. Even 25 years ago I don't recall it having as large a concentration of gay people as it does today. Maybe they were always there and just kept a lower profile, but it seems to have really officially gotten on the gay map sometime in the late 90s.

[Electra 225]

Hot Springs Redeaux

 

I've been to Hot Springs a number of times--it is a charming, but run-down place, just aching for a gay invasion to buff, puff, and spruce up the place. There is a small gay community already there: mostly shop owners/keepers that own small restaurants, antique shops, flower and plant shops, etc. The whole place is pretty closeted, but that can be changed with an "invasion". Arkansas is not as conservative or "red neck" as you would think, but it is not the bastion of liberalism by any stretch of the imagination. It would take some true pioneers with substantive resources and a cohesive effort to pull something off--and it would have to be inclusive of the existing community at large as the area is, increasingly, a mecca for the retirement set. My two cents.

[Guest verymarried]

Here is one of my favorite Hot Springs buildings which has been abandoned for decades and for sale on and off. http://www.arkansaspreservation.com/historic-properties/_search_nomination_popup.aspx?id=2089

[bigvalboy]

Here is one of my favorite Hot Springs buildings which has been abandoned for decades and for sale on and off. http://www.arkansaspreservation.com/historic-properties/_search_nomination_popup.aspx?id=2089

 

Out of curiosity VM, do you remember the sale price and the last time that it was for sale?

[rickp]

I vacationed in Arkansas back in 2007. We stayed in a cabin up in Petit Jean State Park and did a lot of hiking in the Ozarks. From the cabin, we did a day trip to Hot Springs and I absolutely loved it! It's a very nice little town and the bathhouses are gorgeous! I found Arkansas to be a wonderful mountain resort and would return there anytime.

[Atlantagaguy]

Arkansas is more of a moderate democrat state with some liberal leanings. There is already one community that has been spruced up by many gay business men and women, that area is Eureka Springs Ar. http://pride.outineureka.com/index.html Please don’t say Arkansan are not progressive http://www.hrc.org/blog/entry/eureka-springs-becomes-first-city-in-arkansas-to-endorse-marriage-equality . Arkansas was the first state to elect a woman Hattie Wyatt Caraway to the US senate she served 1931-1945.

I had a grandmother that lived in Arkansas, I would always visit her and she had a lake house in Hot Springs. When I was old enough my GM would take me to the horse races. I have very fond memories of the spa city. Half of Arkansas is beautiful; the other half is flat and boring. The last time I was there I could see how the DT area was declining. I would love to go back and take a bath in the famous bath houses, If they are still open.

[trilingual]

Hot Springs also isn't very far from Little Rock, the state's capital and largest city. It's a pleasant city that has improved a lot in recent years, so it's a convenient resource for someone living in Hot Springs. If the city could be spruced up as an LGBT-friendly resort it probably could attract visitors from Kansas City and St. Louis, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Tulsa, etc. They're large potential markets within an easy drive of Hot Springs. For some folks with money and a desire to fix up the old buildings it's an interesting proposition!

[Guest verymarried]

Big Val I am working on getting current info on the art moderne Moutainaire Hotel which has been abandoned for years. In the meaantime I ran across this cool nearby home with an asking price of $99,000 and another historic home for $38.000. http://www.trulia.com/property/1085362922-303-Oakcliff-Hot-Springs-AR-71901