re: Arkansas lost an historic landmark last night

The moldings & wood alone would've brought in a small fortune. People I deal with are extremely interested in it. They're always wanting me to find old moldings, fixtures, etc. for remodeling their homes. If I had known about this, I most definitely would have inquired.

Yes, there are quite a few wealthy people down here in SELA who send me looking for this exact type of thing. Many of the old homes & buildings around New Orleans & surrounding areas have been "scavenged" to death, so this hotel would've been a gold mine for many.

I still am puzzled as to why it was allowed to deteriorate into such a state, though. Evidently, money was not an issue for the owner(s); otherwise, I'm confident much of that valuable material would have been salvaged. Of course, the ideal situation would have been to refurbish the hotel to its prior glory for Hot Springs, as well as the state. Just a waste all around.

So, here is something to consider.

I was talking to a friend last night who lives in Hot Springs. So, that entire block damn near is The Majestic. The only thing lose was the "u" shaped building. He said those were mostly just rooms and the building beside it was the one with most of the fine woodwork, lounge, etc.

Theory: Owners knew fire fighters would just let it burn. If it burned, this meant it would be unsafe to leave standing as it sits close to the roadway.

Insurance money would be enough to start a renovation on main lobby building and rooms there.

Thoughts?

I love Hot Springs, shady as frick.

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Litigator

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Great Facebook page. You're right, tons of info & videos/pics.

This one is heartbreaking. ...



... and so are the videos of walk throughs of the hotel in its deteriorated state filmed before the fire. I see things in each shot that I would've loved to have had. The videos are extremely haunting and sad.

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Hawgeye

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I was talking to a friend last night who lives in Hot Springs. So, that entire block damn near is The Majestic. The only thing lose was the "u" shaped building. He said those were mostly just rooms and the building beside it was the one with most of the fine woodwork, lounge, etc.

Theory: Owners knew fire fighters would just let it burn. If it burned, this meant it would be unsafe to leave standing as it sits close to the roadway.

Insurance money would be enough to start a renovation on main lobby building and rooms there.

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I see what you mean about the "U" shaped building being the one that burned, not the other building containing the lobby, etc. where much of the valuable interior items are located.

Arson & insurance fraud, as CV said, is absolutely something to consider, and I'm sure the authorities will look into it. That's probably standard in cases like this when many millions are involved.
After seeing the videos of the largest portion of the hotel where the rooms were located, it's obvious that it would have cost an enormous amount to refurbish it. It's not illogical to suspect insurance fraud.

It just kills me to see very old historic, once incredibly beautiful buildings left to rot as The Majestic was, and particularly in this instance. It is a huge responsibility and undertaking to maintain something this massive, but honestly, it never should have been neglected to this degree.

Regardless of how the fire started or why, a lot of tangible history was lost when it burned.

Central Park Fusion across the street from there is awesome. That pic from above made me think of it.