The Fordyce

The Fordyce is where you go to understand the rest of Bathhouse Row. Opened in 1915 and closed in 1962 as the bath trade declined, it was restored and reopened as the visitor center for Hot Springs National Park, and it remains the most complete record of what a grand American bathhouse looked like when it was at its peak. A guided or self-guided walk takes you through three floors: marble-lined dressing rooms, tile bathing halls, hydrotherapy rooms with strange old apparatus, a gymnasium, a lounge with a stained glass skylight, and a Turkish-style cooling room with a sculpted fountain. The building has been furnished to show how it worked, with rows of tubs, vapor cabinets and treatment tables, so you can picture the choreography of a visitor moving from soak to scrub to rest to massage. It is also a lesson in how seriously Americans once took the water cure.

Highlights include the stained glass over the central hall, the tilework in the baths, the gymnasium with its exercise equipment and the basement tub rooms where the real plumbing happened. Park rangers often lead tours and give talks, and the museum displays explain the spring system, the history of the reservation and the bath attendants who made the system run.

A short film provides background on the park's creation in 1832 and its later changes. Exhibits are well suited to curious kids, who tend to enjoy the odd hydrotherapy gadgets and the idea of a hot-water spa palace in the middle of a town.

The visitor center is also where you should start your visit to the park. Rangers can tell you which bathhouses are open, point out trails on Hot Springs Mountain, and suggest a walking route that matches your energy. Maps, passport stamps and a park store are here too. The building keeps regular daytime hours, and admission has traditionally been free or low cost, but check the National Park Service pages for current times and any special events.

Allow roughly an hour for a good look. The upper floors have stairs, though the building has accessibility features, so ask a ranger about the best route. Combine the visit with a walk along the row and a stop at the thermal fountains, and you will have a full national park outing without ever leaving downtown. It is one of the best free indoor attractions in Arkansas, and a rainy day's best shelter.

Take the time to read the small signs and listen for ranger programs, because the Fordyce is full of surprising details. Look for the rows of marble dressing stalls, the ornate plaster ceilings, the wooden cabinet tubs and the tools of the bath attendants' trade, including needle showers and fan-shaped sprays designed to massage tired muscles. Upstairs, the quiet rooms that once held social events and music feel like a grand old hotel.

The building reminds you that Hot Springs was not just a place to soak but a social world with its own rules and rituals, and it adds depth to every other bathhouse you visit afterwards. If you have only one hour for museums in town, this is the one to spend it on.