This Small Arkansas Town Has The Best Downtown
Downtown Eureka Springs, Arkansas, is more than the heart of an extraordinary small town. Depending on your perspective, it is a door, an oasis, or a deep aquifer of renewal. Mystics believe an energy vortex is also buried in the mountain, like a portal to the transcendent steps from Main Street. The town is also the site of several crystalline mineral springs whose promise of healing once drew cascades of visitors to this small valley settlement in the Ozark Highlands. Adding to its appeal as the state’s best downtown, Eureka Springs has become a hub of creativity with a tightly-knit community enlivened by the colorfully kinetic energy of artists, authors, musicians, and dreamers.
Enduring Architectural Artistry
Style and imagination have long been key elements of downtown Eureka Springs' success. Set against a landscape of steep hillsides and limestone ravines, the town’s late 19th-century planners used innovative architectural techniques to bring functionality and Victorian beauty to this unlikely town center. Respecting the contours of the land, they created a labyrinth of winding streets lined with structures of varying heights and styles, ranging from Queen Anne and Second Empire to Gothic Revival, Italianate, and Romanesque Revival designs.
Spring Street offers many striking examples of buildings whose ground floors are several stories below the sidewalk, and some have multiple entrances on separate streets at different elevations. The Basin Park Hotel takes this unique engineering concept even further, with each of its seven floors featuring a ground-floor entrance via a footbridge to the mountainside into which the hotel is built. The town’s builders believed that creating a downtown of architectural masterpieces was possible, and their artistry endures. In 1970, their legacy received a special tribute when the entire downtown was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Springs Eternal
As much as these inventive planners shaped the town of Eureka Springs, credit should ultimately go to Mother Nature herself, and the simple, pure, patient force of water. From ancient limestone, prismatic currents carved lakebeds, gorges, caves, and the narrow valley that cradles the town. Its intricate sculpture complete, water gave one final gift to the land and the generations who would inhabit it: mineral springs rising from deep within the Earth.
Native peoples were the first to recognize and revere this gift. They believed the natural spring water could heal and revitalize, and by 1879, droves of new settlers were drawn to Eureka Springs to find renewal in the water. Today, downtown is dotted by many of the most popular springs. In one pocket park, Sweet Spring feels like a secret garden. Its century-old staircase spirals down to the spring’s peaceful grotto. Califf Spring is located next to the Eureka Springs Historical Museum, making it the perfect place for visitors to pause and rest after learning about the town's early days.
Basin Spring is the town’s most famous landmark, located in Basin Spring Park, the community hub and gathering place. The legend of Eureka Springs was born here, carried across generations by the many who believed they had discovered healing properties in the spring’s clear waters. Today, the park hosts free live music in a restored bandstand and festivals throughout the year.
Celebrations for Every Season
While Basin Spring Park is a destination unto itself, it is also the perfect jumping-off point for exploring downtown’s other enchanting attractions. Tourists stroll down mural-lined sidewalks to discover unique galleries and studios, like Quicksilver Gallery, which features pottery, metalwork, clocks, jewelry, and musical instruments. The Wilson and Wilson Folk Art Company is a working studio where mother and daughter founders create nostalgic, whimsical pieces, while The Statton Gallery includes an intriguing outdoor sculpture display. Ideal places to purchase souvenir art include aMUSEd Fine Art & Extraordinary Books and Iris at the Basin Park. In addition, the Eureka Springs Historical Museum hosts exhibits that showcase local artists.
Downtown is a joy to experience any time of year, but many of the best experiences are the annual celebrations that recur like clockwork on the Eureka Springs cultural calendar. The Festival of the Arts begins in May with the ARTrageous Parade, when an eclectic assortment of floats, puppets, lumbering storybook characters, costumed pets, and abstract creations wind through downtown streets. The Ozark Folk Festival happens in the fall. One of America’s oldest folk festivals, it celebrates the region's traditional music, crafts, and culture.
Meanwhile, the Halloween Zombie Crawl transforms downtown into a fun and frightful dystopia, and the relatively new Goggles, Gears & Springs Steampunk Festival leans into the community’s quirkier side. Mardi Gras is another perfect excuse for a vibrant pageant, with events spilling into nearby restaurants and hotels. Participants and parade-watchers often cap the evening at the Crescent Hotel’s Mardi Gras Coronation Ball, whose jazz-cool crescendo is the crowning of a Mardi Gras king and queen.
Downtown Lodging and Dining
The Crescent Hotel is at the center of many other downtown events and activities. It professes to be the most haunted hotel in America and, as such, hosts daily ghost tours of the storied nineteenth-century resort. For visitors who don’t mind sharing a room with a few restless spectral residents, The Crescent is also a great place to spend the night.
Other downtown Victorian inns include the Basin Park Hotel, the Grand Central Hotel, and the New Orleans Hotel, whose wrought-iron balconies provide some of the best spots for watching the cacophony of Spring Street below. The iconic Flatiron Flats offers upscale lodging at the intersection of Spring and Center Streets. This architectural treasure, reconstructed in 1987 after two earlier versions were destroyed by fire, is one of the most photographed buildings in Eureka Springs.
As you can imagine, a town that prizes a spectrum of sensory experiences doesn’t disappoint when it comes to the culinary arts. Choices range from handmade fudge at the family-owned Two Dumb Dames Fudge Factory on Main Street to dinner at Grotto on Center Street. The wood-fired grill boasts a wine cave that is built into a limestone hollow and features its own mineral spring. Mid-range dining options include the Local Flavor Cafe and Mud Street Cafe for light, local fare, and the Balcony Restaurant & Bar, renowned for its burgers, craft beers, and expansive views of Basin Spring Park, the place where it all began.
Discover and Reconnect
There is something about the unhurried pace of a small town that makes you feel you’ve stepped into a better version of this world. In Eureka Springs, your exploration of downtown’s pitched, contoured streets may take you to another place far away, deep in the past. There, you may learn about a rich heritage, savor a retold story, or marvel at a timeless architectural design. Just as likely, the mystical ethos of Arkansas’ best downtown may lead you to a place closer to home through a journey inward, where self-discovery and healing are the ultimate destination.
