Medical Arts Building II- Hot Springs

Last weekend, me and a friend met up with jakethesartech2 and headed back down to the Medical Arts buidling in downtown Hot Springs. After gaining entrance to the building, we were amazed to see how much suff was still left inside.
We explored several of the offices and other rooms on the entrance floor, which we found out to be the fourth. At one point, part of this building had been a radio station and we were able to find a cabinet for equipment that still have the "on-air" light switch on it.


After this, we started up the stairs to other parts of the building. On the landing above us, we found an old crate containing old coke and 7-up bottles and a suspiciously new looking BAWLS bottle. As we continued up the stairs, we stopped on several different floors. One of these floors had a complete office still set up, but you could tell it had been out of use. There were also several ESPN banners lying around the building. Another part of the building had been a TV station and there were archives filled with the shows they used to play. One of the neatest finds was a room completely filled with stuff. There were two or there chandlers in boxes and several stacks of old maps. There were also Ozark souvenir toothpicks dating from 1985.










Finally, after 12 stories, we reached the top most level. We entered into a room that held the machine that worked the elevator, a work bench, and what I believe was a fuse box. From this point, we were able to climb from the ladder out onto the roof. This was easier said then done though. The ladder didn't have a solid floor underneath it; there was a drop of two or three stories before something would stop your fall.

Everyone was able to make it onto the roof safely. The view from the roof is great and you can see the whole of downtown. The two pictures I took on the roof were mostly meant to show height. The first is a shot of the towers on the Arlington and the scenic tower that overlooks downtown. The second shows a view heading downtown towards the convention center and old army and naval hospital.
The journey back down was mostly uneventful. We stopped on serval of the floors that we missed and several of the pictures from earlier were actually from the way back down. However, when we returned to the entrance floor, we decided we wanted to do more extensive exploring than we had done the first time. We were all looking at this old office when all of a sudden jakethesartech2 stopped and turned suddenly. He asked us if we had heard anything. We listened and we heard this "Screech, Screech" noise. We thought we were in big trouble and that the store owners below had called the cops. However, it turned out it was just some other UE's, the ones who had originally shown me the building. They had decdied it would be it would a good idea to roll around in the old metal wheelchair. After talking to them for a few minutes, we decided to call it a day and headed out. I'm surprised they didn't get the cops called on them as much noise as they were making.

-Fonzi

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.