The Crescent Hotel and Norman Baker’s Quack Hospital

When

since 1938 date from records made at the time

Where

Eureka Springs, Arkansas, United States

Verdict

Legend

From 1938 to 1940 this Victorian hotel in the Ozarks was the “hospital” of a con man who promised to cure cancer. Today it bills itself as America’s most haunted hotel.

What happened

The Crescent Hotel opened on 1 May 1886 on a hill above the spa town of Eureka Springs, famous for its supposedly healing springs. Built of massive limestone blocks, with electricity and elevators, it was hailed as the finest resort in America. As the spa went out of fashion the hotel opened only in summer, and in 1933 it closed altogether. In 1937 it was bought by Norman Baker – a radio man and inventor with no medical training – who the following year opened the “Baker Hospital” there. He promised cancer patients a cure within six weeks, without surgery or radiation, by injecting them with “Formula 5,” a mixture of alcohol, glycerine, carbolic acid and plant matter. He painted the lobby purple and drove a lavender car. In 1940 he was convicted of mail fraud and the hospital closed. In 2019 excavation behind the hotel turned up bottles from his time, some containing what appeared to be preserved tissue samples. The hotel now runs ghost tours, including the old morgue, and staff and guests tell of, among others, an Irish stonemason named Michael who is said to have died during construction and a boy called Breckie.

Witnesses

Hotel staff and guests; the stories are spread by the hotel itself on its daily ghost tours.

Explanations and hypotheses

Baker’s story is documented in court records and the press: according to Smithsonian Magazine he made millions of dollars selling false hope to the sick, and his “cure” did nothing. The ghost stories, on the other hand, are anecdotal and are spread mainly by the hotel, which has made them part of its marketing – something critics find awkward given Baker’s real victims. Archaeologists from the Arkansas Archeological Survey studied the 2019 bottles as evidence of the hospital’s activities, not of anything supernatural.

Legend A story handed down through generations – it can be neither confirmed nor disproved.

Sources

More: Wikipedia (en)