page_title: Bathhouse Row
section_title: Government involvement alongside private development
hierarchical_section_title: Bathhouse Row / History / Government involvement alongside private development
caption_attribution_description: Central Avenue, looking north. Bathhouse Row is on the right. The large white building at top is the Arlington Hotel. Published circa 1924.
context_page_description: Bathhouse Row is a collection of bathhouses, associated buildings, and gardens located at Hot Springs National Park in the city of Hot Springs, Arkansas. The bathhouses were included in 1832 when the Federal Government took over four parcels of land to preserve 47 natural hot springs, their mineral waters which lack the sulphur odor of most hot springs, and their area of origin on the lower slopes of Hot Springs Mountain.
  The existing bathhouses are the third and fourth generations of bathhouses along Hot Springs Creek and some sit directly over the hot springs – the resource for which the area was set aside as the first federal reserve in 1832. The bathhouses are a collection of turn-of-the-century eclectic buildings in neoclassical, renaissance-revival, Spanish and Italianate styles aligned in a linear pattern with formal entrances, outdoor fountains, promenades and other landscape-architectural features. The buildings are illustrative of the popularity of the spa movement in the United States in the 19th and 20th centuries.
context_section_description: Although the area had been set aside as the first federal reservation in 1832 government acquisition of the lands did not take place until 1879. By that time private development had established its own north–south linear building pattern along the creek and hot springs.
  The bathhouses were constructed along the east edge of Hot Springs Creek which was covered over and channeled into a masonry arch in 1884. This eliminated the separate bridges to each bathhouse and also improved sanitation in the area. The space above the arch was filled with dirt and planted, so that each bathhouse now had its own garden space.
  From 1892 until 1900 the Department of the Interior undertook a massive beautification project to improve the character of the "National Health Resort". The main landscape thrust of the program was to provide formal gardens in front of the bathhouses and more "natural" landscaped areas behind. The range of landscaping would provide areas for restful walks with enough connection to nature and the outdoors to ensure a healthy atmosphere for recuperation. Frederick Law Olmsted's landscape architectural firm was hired to produce plans for the area but those plans were rejected or left unfinished for a variety of reasons. The project development was given to an Army engineer, Lieutenant Robert Stevens. Stevens designed the entrances to the reservation including the historic main entrance. He also conceived of the Magnolia Promenade in front of the bathhouses, the meandering upper terrace behind the bathhouses, a series of pathways, carriage roads and vest-pocket parks.
  Massage services were added in the bathhouses in the late 1890s and later chiropodists.
caption: Central Avenue after 1925
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