Hot Springs Creek Tunnel-Hot Springs

Pictures from Hot Springs Creek Tunnel part of Hot Springs Underground. I will add an account soon.

Howe Hotel-Hot Springs

The other day, I headed with some friends to the Howe Hotel in downtown Hot Springs, across from the Arlington. The hotel had suffered burn damage to the back and much of the back was left open and exposed to the elements.

After we were able to gain entrance, however, we found a very different story. Much of the interior was still in some state of functionality. We decided that it would be best if we headed up the top of the building first and checked out the basement later. On one of the floors we were able to find an open elevator just sitting. I climbed out into the elevator and snapped a picture of the buttons on this thing, with images of elevators falling four or five stories filling my head. On another floor, we found an old dentist's chair just sitting out in the hall. We snapped a picture of it, which looked extra creepy in our lights.

Eventually we reached the roof. We weren't able to do much exploring up here because ths hotel is located right next to an active hotel. We could see people watching their TV's in the room right across the street. I snapped a picture out of the door, showing the view towards the Downtowner Hotel. I also snapped another one through a door whose glass was broken.
At this point, we decided to head down to the basement and lower levels of the hotel. This is actually a very dangerous part. The first and second floors have spots that are fully visible to the outside and anyone passing by could see you. However, we were able to pass without problem and made it down to the lower levels. We went into one room and there was a square section cut out of the floor that led down below. It was filled with old debris and trash. However, we were able to find a staircase and descend to an even lower level. This level was partially flooded and we had to step carefully across some cinder blocks. This room and an adjacent one had been carved out of stone a long time ago. Housed in it was a large, rusted machine that seemed to be pumping water out constantly. I snapped a couple of pictures , but none of them came out looking very good. I also decided to snap a final shot of the hotel as we headed out and back home.
Stay safe. Tread carefully.
Fonzi

Thompson Building Apartments-Hot Springs

Set out to downtown Hot Springs again, this time with a fully functioning camera. The group I was with chose to tackle the smaller of the two buildings we wanted to explore first. We found a registration card inside the building that named this as the Thompson Building Apartments. We also were able to find a newspaper and some other documents that led us to believe it had been abandoned since 1986. We had a rough time getting there because it had been sleeting all morning.



We were able to slide down the slopes and eventually entered into the Victorian style garden behind the building. There was an awesome old gas lamp sitting back here. It was a nice find!

We were finally able to crawl through and gain entrance to the building. After walking around for a little bit, we came to the conclusion that this place was completely trashed. There was graffiti all over the walls and stuff was strewn everywhere. One of the bathrooms even had a tub with a pair of underwear in it. There was a note written on the wall dated 1999 saying it had been there for 23 years. There were also these random steel gates in some of the doors to the rooms.




The journey to the roof proved much more interesting. A hippie-vampire tag at the very top of the stairs caught my eye. We also found the machine that powered the elevator and another that held all the fuses for the building. The only picture I was able to get of the roof, however, was looking at it, not from it.
We then exited the building and started on our way to the Medical Arts Building. However, while we were on our way, several cop cars drove by and we decided that we should just call it a day.

Medical Arts Building-Hot Springs

This afternoon I went with some guys to the Med Arts Building in Hot Springs. Unfortunately, my camera was low on batteries and died before I could get any good shots. We are planning on heading back sometime so I can get some pictures. It is the tallest building in downtown Hot Springs and located right across from the Arlington Hotel.

Anyways once we got in, we started looking around and there is stuff EVERYWHERE. There were all kinds of wheelchairs and other old stuff. We explored a little around on the floor we came in on (which ended up being the third) then we thought we had set off an alarm and left just in case. We went down a trail we had found and were able to gain access into another building that had a really amazing Victorian style garden that was overgrown behind it. Unfortunately this building had been entered many times before and vandals had tagged up most of the building.

Eventually, we decided enough time had passed and we went back to enter the Med. Art Building. This time we were determined to make it to the top floor. We entered again on the third floor and started to make our way up. We stopped on several floors and there was something interesting on every one. We finally made it up the 16 floors up to the roof and were able to climb out on top. What an AMAZING view!

My only regret is that the guys who took me were very destructive and ended up breaking several objects in the building. Needless to say, I won't be going with them again.

Anyways, I thought I'd share that with you guys. Hope you enjoyed it.