On Feb. 27, 2014, bystanders lined the area around Park Avenue as the original building of the Majestic Hotel burned, taking with it a portion of Hot Springs' tourism history.
On the one year anniversary of the fire, the rubble remains as a reminder of the work yet to be done in downtown Hot Springs, but serves as a positive motivator for what's to come.
"I think it's had an impact in some sense on tourism in Hot Springs," said Visit Hot Springs CEO Steve Arrison. "As far as numbers go, it hasn't had an impact, but it certainly doesn't look good for us and doesn't make a very good first impression. It's just a shame."
Arrison said that over the course of the last year the Majestic has served to draw publicity to Hot Springs, which has resulted in positive work done by locals to improve the downtown area.
"You have to look at the good things about it," he said. "It wasn't an operational hotel -- it had sat empty for several years. But this situation has started a revitalization that I think will make a positive impact on tourism in the long run."
Tom Daniel, a former city director who served on the Hot Springs Advertising and Promotion Commission, and a longtime downtown business owner, says having the rubble remain untouched for the past year is "certainly a negative" for the city, but understands that the process is often drawn out.
"Having been active in city government for so long, I do understand that these things don't happen overnight which is a difficult realization to swallow for some folks," he said. "I do think something could have been done to improve the streetscape, because it doesn't reflect well on our image. We have many tourists who came here as kids or on their honeymoons who have returned and don't understand why nothing has been done.
"But you look at places like Pine Bluff, which is dealing with a similar situation where no one is wanting to take responsibility for a historic building. But the thing is, it's no one person's responsibility -- it takes all of us working together as a whole."
Daniel said that while he was growing up in Hot Springs, Park Avenue was the high end area of town and has always acted as a gateway into the city.
"It represented progress and was where all the newest hotels and shops were," he said. "Park is the gateway for people from Hot Springs Village to come into downtown, and the number of visitors they bring to our city each year through that area is tremendous."
While the event and aftermath have brought "adverse publicity" to downtown, Daniel said it comes at a time of rebirth for the downtown area.
"It's definitely brought some negative attention to Hot Springs because of the instant communication -- everyone is on Facebook and tweeting from their phone when they're here. But it comes at a time when we have a lot of good things happening for downtown," he said.
"We would be blessed to have this all over with and cleaned up. If I had the money to do it myself, I would like anyone else in this city.
"But I think we all know that whenever we reach the end result, we will all be extremely happy with where Hot Springs is at. When you go through periods of positive growth, you do pay the price. For years, our bath houses sat empty and visitors wondered why they weren't in use. Now they're all pretty much running in some fashion. We just have to remain positive of continue working together for Hot Springs."
Local on 02/27/2015