In May of this year, the Hot Springs community received the very bad news that the towering Arkansas Career Training Institute building would close down effective Dec. 31.
This impressive former military hospital building and complex, located on Reserve Avenue, was originally known as the Army and Navy General Hospital until 1960, and then known as the Arkansas Rehabilitation Center until recently. This is a brief history of that magnificent building and also a sounding of the alarm that the Hot Springs community will want to try to develop a plan for what will happen to this iconic building.
The history of the building dates back to 1887, when the military built the hospital and designated it as the first general hospital established during peacetime, according to its National Register of Historic Places nomination form. Hot Springs was chosen because of the proximity of the city's namesake "healing waters."
In 1930, Congress approved the construction of the new Army and Navy Hospital at a total cost of over $2 million dollars (the equivalent of over $38 million dollars today). Completed in 1933, this facility replaced the original military hospital built in the 1880s, creating an "imposing landmark in the heart of downtown Hot Springs."
This large new hospital design included a masonry tower rising almost 200 feet over the roadway at the main entrance. Skilled workmen utilized the best materials including marble, tile, and terrazzo. No expense was spared in the construction of this monumental hospital which was built to last for many generations.
This new military hospital had a 500-bed capacity, which is more than the combined licensed bed capacity of both CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs and National Park Medical Center. The hospital complex is located on 21 acres and includes a dozen adjacent buildings.
In the 1940s, over 95,000 soldiers received medical care at the Army and Navy Hospital, including my father, Lt. Clayton Farrar Sr., who was injured in Germany at the end of World War II and spent two years recuperating as a patient there.
Unfortunately, by the early 1950s, the Army and Navy Hospital was determined to be obsolete and its patients and medical staff were transferred to other VA hospitals.
On April 1, 1960, ownership of the large hospital complex was transferred from the federal government to the state of Arkansas to become the primary facility of the Arkansas Rehabilitation Services. The "Rehab Center," as the hospital was commonly known, taught vocational and independent living skills to people with disabilities including spinal cord injuries. Recently, the center was renamed the Arkansas Career Training Institute. Currently, there are around 260 students with various disabilities who are enrolled in the vocational programs and who live at the Hot Springs facility.
So what is to come of the huge Army and Navy Hospital building? It is helpful to look to other communities around the country that have been faced with finding alternate uses for similar large VA hospitals that been closed. Some former hospitals have been successfully converted into upscale condominium projects, historic hotels, or affordable senior housing facilities.
However, a complicating factor with the "repurposing" of the Army and Navy Hospital is the legal obligation of the federal government to take the property back from the state. According to the 1959 federal law transferring ownership to the state, this would occur "if the property is not used as a vocational rehabilitation center or for such other public health or educational purposes." In other words, the future of the facility will soon be in the hands of federal agencies who will no doubt be shocked and surprised to find out they once again own and are responsible for the once proud Army and Navy Hospital.
Over the last 131 years of the existence of the original Army and Navy Hospital and its 1930s replacement, the Hot Springs community has had to time and again rally to support this important facility. In the 1880s, the community had to overcome the Northern bias that such a facility should not be built in a Southern state that had been a member of the Confederacy. In the 1950s, the Hot Springs community had to lobby both federal and state officials for the hospital building to be repurposed as the Arkansas Rehabilitation Center.
Hopefully, Hot Springs community leaders, together with our state and federal representatives can now develop a plan that would prevent this amazing building from falling into disrepair and even possible ruin.
Unfortunately, if the repurposing of the facility does not occur, there does exist a more bleak alternative future for the old Army Navy Hospital. One knowledgeable community leader has suggested that the only practical solution is for the state to transfer the hospital back to the federal government and accept the fact that in the not too distant future, this magnificent building will probably be demolished. That, indeed, would be a tragedy.
Retired local attorney Clay Farrar writes a monthly column about Hot Springs history. Email [email protected] with questions or comments.
Editorial on 06/26/2019