Basic Information
The Crescent Hotel & Spa in Eureka Springs, Arkansas was built in 1886. While initially successful, visits declined when people realized that its "healing waters" had no curative powers. After various changes of ownership it was bought by a man named Norman Baker in 1937 who made a name for himself by peddling alleged "cancer treatments" in the hotel. When he was convicted of mail fraud in 1939, an investigation concluded that he might have defrauded cancer patients of more than 4 million dollars.
Several ghosts are reputed to haunt the hotel. One is "Michael", allegedly one of the original masons who died during construction. Another one is a nurse from the days as a cancer hospital, appearing at the same time at night when the hospital would move its deceased patients. Dr. Baker himself has also been spotted, and the old telephone switchboard was discontinued when it kept getting calls from the otherwise empty basement.
Sources
Game and Story Use
- Move the time a bit further back, and this becomes the perfect setting for a Call of Cthulhu adventure - a hotel filled with the desperate and dying, a con artist using all sorts of questionable methods to "cure" patients…
- Especially when he decides to use some Mythos artifact because of the neat special effects it provides…
- People keep selling magical cures at the hotel. Maybe they were real, and got "used up", or were stopped to protect the masquerade. Or maybe there's something about the hotel that attracts fraudsters.