Businessman and railroad magnate Samuel Wesley Fordyce was a key figure in the early development and promotion of Hot Springs as an international spa and resort. He first visited in 1873 seeking a cure for lingering health problems caused by wounds received while serving in the Civil War. Fordyce was so impressed with the healing thermal waters that he moved his family here to live in 1876.

Fordyce saw the potential of Hot Springs as a world-class health resort and invested heavily in the infrastructure of Hot Springs, partnering in the construction of several large hotels, the city opera house, all municipal utility systems, the street railway system, the local country club, and several bathhouses.

Samuel W. Fordyce opened the Fordyce Bathhouse in 1915, after the Palace was closed and razed. Fordyce, owner of the Fordyce Bathhouse, planned every detail of its construction, and fitted the bathhouse with the most innovative hydrotherapy and mechanotherapy equipment available. During the Golden Age of Bathing, when the Fordyce was in its heyday, this specialized equipment also offered therapeutic exercise to many people who came to the bathhouse with conditions that kept them from exercising vigorously. The first “physical culture department” at the Fordyce Bathhouse did not opened in its gymnasium until November 12, 1923. Tickets were sold at the rate of $9 for ten lessons.

The gloomy and declining business environment of the late 1950s, prompted the Fordyce family partnership to put their bathhouse on the market. The park superintendent recommended that the National Park Service acquire the Fordyce Bathhouse and convert it into the park’s visitor center in lieu of the MISSION 66 plan for a new visitor center built on Arlington Lawn. The bathhouse reopened as the park visitor center in 1989. Today, visitors can watch an orientation movie and tour, as well as watch a 9-minute movie that shows the traditional bath routine. Scheduled regularly during the summer months, tours are offered at the Fordyce Bathhouse, where visitors can still see the Fordyce Spring and the original Otis elevator mechanism used at the bathhouse.

Credits and Sources:

Cockrell, Ron. “The Hot Springs of Arkansas—America’s First National Park: Administrative History of Hot Springs National Park.” National Park Service. Accessed June 15, 2015.

“Samuel W. Fordyce.” National Park Service. http://www.nps.gov/hosp/learn/historyculture/samuel-fordyce.htm (accessed June 15, 2015).

“The Remarkable Therapy Machines of Dr. Gustav Zander.” National Park Service. http://www.nps.gov/hosp/learn/historyculture/upload/zander.pdf. (accessed June 15, 2015).

Shugart, Sharon. “The Hot Springs of Arkansas Through The Years: A Chronology Of Events -Excerpts-.” Department of the Interior, 2004. http://www.nps.gov/hosp/learn/historyculture/upload/chronology.web.pdf. (accessed June 15, 2015).

Quinn Evans Architects, Mundus Bishop Design, and Woolpert, Inc. Hot Springs National Park, Cultural Landscape Report and Environmental Assessment. National Park Service, 2010.