Agreed, it's something new and different. Fascinating to finally get an idea of what some of these abandoned places might have looked like. It was much nicer than one might have imagined while just looking at the abandoned version. I would love to see more like it.
There is an eerie ambiance to this video. It feels almost as if you are in two totally different points in time. The aspect of the "before and after" shots, i guess you could almost call them, makes it seem like you recorded in the same hotel when it was in operation, and years after it became dilapidated almost like you were stuck in both periods at once. It just goes to show that long after we are gone, as time goes on; this is what will happen to our structures and architecture when no one is around to maintain it.
GenerationSmashed what makes this weirder is after this video the building has a massive fire and when they went to fix it many times they couldn’t because their machines kept breaking down from unexplained reasons. Most of the fire damage occurred on the 8th and 11th floor
@@buddcarcook4655 Dude, my college dorm was VERY VERY similar to the Shining and the third floor hallways were the creepiest ever. I always stayed a few days after move out to help with grad and the feeling of being in there alone will always stick with me
Every year for about 8 years starting in 1991 or so my family and I used to go to this hotel for summer vacation. I haven't been there since 99, but I remember this place fondly and to this day this is still my all time favorite hotel. I hope to return very soon one day.
In a reply to a TripAdvisor review, they say they are "in the planning stage of an upcoming renovation", and "major changes, including rooms, will be done when the full renovation takes place in the near future. The new owners are working with architects and designers" so hopefully it'll come alive again
Hope it works out for them. What dooms hotels like this is the lack of modern amenities. Hopefully they find a way to bring those in, while maintaining the classic and historic nature of the hotel.
Hope they keep it running. Doesn't look like there are many guests but that might be a seasonal thing. Here in New Zealand there aren't that many old public buildings of this size so it'd be great to check out someday.
I stayed at this Hotel in August 2018 at the end of peak season and it was packed. I did find out from employees that the new owner of the hotel is having issues with the city about the renovations and that they are being very very difficult about code violations that were already there prior to purchase. I was also told that it is because the new owner is either from out of town or from out of country, I can't remember which, but they don't like it. Can't say if It really is the truth, but that's the story I got. I do know the tower across the street from the Arlington is for sale. Most of the floors are anyways. It needs a LOT of work though.
Hey, I live in Hot Springs! The Arlington is a great hotel, but truly does need some renovating. Rumor around town is that a millionaire recently purchased the hotel and plans to do some pretty major remodels of the rooms and main floor - so it's a good thing you guys came when you did. Great video!
I'm from the Dallas/Ft Worth area and the Baker is getting a makeover and it's gonna reopen in 2022! It's gonna be nice to see these legendary hotels be brought back to life!
We live in a very disposable culture, no one builds anything with the intention of keeping it long term anymore, it's too expensive. So restoring vintage places like this and marketing them as such makes them destinations in and of themselves. My town has Frank Lloyd Wright's last surviving hotel, and it averages better than 80% occupancy annually because Frank Lloyd Wright is a big deal. People will pay good money for the experience of staying at places like these, and I will too.
This is beautiful and sad at the same time. Love the Christmas decorations though, we cannot avoid them, ever. Haha. Ps; a toggery shop is basically just a clothing store. Old fashinoned word for clothes.
That's definitely the late teens and early twenties for luxury places. Granted, contemporary cruise liners and some hotels are trying to retro the style back in in elements.
Not that many years apart. The Titanic was built in 1912 and this hotel was built in 1924. Similar type of design in those days. I personally love old buildings like this. The house I own now was built in 1920 and even though it's almost 100 years old it's well built. My previous house was built in 1915 and it's the same way. Very well built.
I didn't think about that. Of the three Arlington's that were built it's been said that the 2nd one was the most beautiful but it was destroyed in a fire. I've seen photo's but it's really hard to tell in black and white.
The Baker is getting a makeover it's reopening in 2022! I love the Arlington hotel though! I use to go to Hot Springs AR a lot! And I'm from the Dallas/Ft Worth area so the Baker is legendary around here
@@shakarussanders9911 Cornwall should be your first stop, we are the most Southerly in the UK and we have so much beautiful rugged coastline and rolling countryside, it's beautiful. Check out a channel showing off parts of Cornwall called Tripping Cornwall. ru-vid.com/show-UC434uSaBCh24WaIggn2ynEw x
Great research, storytelling, editing, all of it. You guys are rocking it! Beautiful subject juxtaposed with the dilapidation of the Baker, it’s so well done.
I just rewatched both videos (Baker and this) and I looooove to roam through hotel floors in still active hotels. They are so silent and muffled and then there is always some electrical humming somewhere. I like to watch the art on the walls and open doors to maintainance rooms (no alarm signs though) etc. Walking through spa areas when they are closed or pass the breakfast lounge at noon. It's like being in strange stage of halted time. 🙂
I love this place, I live an hour away, the springwayer fountains still work, you just have to hold them open for 20ish seconds before it starts flowing it relies entirely on the pressure of the natural spring.
That was like going back in time to see what life was like in Al Capone's era. I'd like to see more before and after shots. I know it's not the same hotel but there has to be more original copies of architectural design. Just out of curiosity, how much for a double bed room for one night. I would love to travel there and poke around some. Great historical items to be seen. Thanks for the tour.
I live about 45 mins away from the Baker Hotel....growing up in the 80's I probably passed it numerous times...never knowing til recently the history about it!! It always gave me the creeps...now I know why... I still want to try the "Crazy water"... Next time I go to Mineral Wells I'll have to stop and buy some...just to see what the craziness is all about!! Great video guys!!! New to your channel...love it already!!! ❤️❤️
One of the very best explorations seen so far on YT! So much sympathy for the subject, appreciation of period and no irrelevant backing track added. Get yourselves a book on architecture to enable your descriptions of features to improve. Got vibes of The Shining all through the film.
This is one of my favourite videos from you guys, buildings don't need to be abandoned (necessarily) to be interesting and atmospheric. Would love to see more stuff like this in the future! :)
Every video of yours that I watch, I wonder what the place would look like today had it not been closed. This time we actually get to see a glimpse of what it may have been like. Very cool!
My mother worked at the Arlington for almost 35 years and I have wonderful memories as a child going up there. My mother does not work there now, but y'all exploring through the hotel just took me back through memory lane! Also, you CAN rent out the Al Capone room and I have heard that the room was haunted, but I am not sure for certain.
I was around when the Baker Hotel was in operation. Ate breakfast with my Dad in the basement restaurant, and swam in the extravagant swimming pool area with a nice concession stand. On Easter they would offer a very nice buffet. The walls were adorned with portraits of their famous guests. There was a dude ranch for rich people right on the Brazos River called The Seybold Guest Ranch. This was where a lot of the Hollywood bunch would go for the old west experience. My father had a cattle ranch outdoor Mineral Wells where I grew up. I was a real cowboy.
was searching for someone who thinks the same. you see everything working here.. but not sure who is using it.. so weird, and there you see it falling apart because noone needs it any more
I stayed there twice 20 years ago when I was a kid. It definitely didn't look that run down to me at the time but then again I was much younger. I wonder if the ping pong table is still there? It wasn't far from the jacuzzi. Possibly a level down. I remember accidentally hitting a ball over the edge and watching it plummet to the parking lot below. The place is in the side of a mountain if I remember correctly or at least a very tall hill. There is a hiking trail leading upwards toward the top. I can remember walking it but not how far I went or where it eventually led to. Still this was excellent guys. It was a trip seeing a few sections I didn't see before and the room was exactly how I remembered it. CRT and everything. As far as I can tell the bathroom looked the same as well. I was there probably in '95 and '97 respectfully around 10-12 each time so don't count on my recollection. The elevator room and accompanying walkways were my favorite highlight. Also if you guys ever find yourselves headed to Cajun country Louisiana let me know and I can tip ya'll off about all the abandoned locations a friend and I know about in the surrounding areas. There's a good bit. Probably much more than we know about.
Great Explore as always, Bryan and Michael. 👍👍👍 The location is amazing, especially the long corridors and the attic with the elevator machines. All the old lamps and other things in the attic look amazing, too. Many greetings from Germany 😂😂
This is where I had my honeymoon. Such an amazing place! Stayed on the 4th and 11th floors. Never saw anything but they let us into Al Capone’s room to look around. My room was next to his, and if I recall, there’s a connecting door between them.
Very nice guys, the attention to detail in these old hotels is second to none. You don't find that in the slapped together places of today. Thanks for the vlog!
I love that you did this for comparison. I know you hear this a lot, but you are so above and beyond other explorers. Your knowledge, respect and appreciation make such a difference.
How is it I can get the notification and like 50 people have already viewed it? Beautiful building and video. Thank you. The contrast and compare aspect is interesting.
I have that same tile in my bathroom as you did in your hotel room bathroom. If you see tile like this, rest assured the place was constructed during the 1920s.
The summer tourist season in Hot Springs still brings people out in droves, so they make good bank. Hot Springs is as close as you can get to a coastal resort town in Arkansas. Plus, the Arlington still has a lot of draw and respect from people all across the region. If they're going to Hot Springs, they may as well live it up in a nice hotel. The seasonal tide is the reason they can keep the lights on during the off months.
Somehow the sound of the TV turning on reminds me of my childhood and suddenly I feel a little bit better. Also that weird out of place spout thing in the hallway, that was something my old middle school used to have. It did produce some water but it was virtually useless.
its still thriving but from a quick google theres several articles about possible closure or repairs by new owners as well as fires that have occurred in the poast few years
Bravo 👏 this was really amazing from start to finish. I was loving the music as well. It was actually cool to see the elevator motors working instead of being all rusted out.
That is an amazing hotel!! You almost had the place to yourselves!! Finding all of the original lights in the attic was a goldmine. Who else wants to visit this hotel after watching this video?
Things we build today aren't as beautiful, as classic and timeless. I'm so tired of old churches and buildings being replaced with cheap, plain and quickly to construct metal buildings that will last no where near as long as these magnificent old treasures. The period of Victorian to Art Deco is absolutely gorgeous and it's a shame we aren't preserving these places!
Excellent video. Those hotels are nearly mirror images of one another. You can tell the Baker was modeled after the Arlington and more than likely did use the same blueprints. Something else too, even though those hallways are well lit, they have a dark appearance about them which is a sign of being haunted. It has a bit of a stillness and eeriness about it as well. There is a tremendous amount of history and life in those walls, a lot of residual there, you can almost see it.
There has been a few mud slides in the 80s I believe was one that killed some tourist in a small parking lot in between some tourist's stores just past the hotel. A family was killed, and they couldn't recover the bodies because it would've caused more of the mountain to crumble.
I watched your exploration of the Baker Hotel first, and love the way you followed up with this. What a great idea you had. Thank you for your excellent work.
We filmed from around 10pm to 2am and we did see a few guests and employees in the early part of the night. But the place definitely had low occupancy while we were there.
The Arlington is on Bathhouse Rd. It's the tourist shop part of downtown. It's always busy during the day. The trail you walk from the old post office leads all the way to the small park next to the hotel. It's a really beautiful Mountain Valley to visit. I grew up there from the 80s to the early to mid 90s.
And this is exactly why I love you guys. You go the extra mile and offer us different perspectives of the explores you do. Great video guys! You should definitely visit Belgium one time, we have some awesome locations here!
You guys are the most respectful urban explorers I've ever seen. Everyone else is always like "duuuuuude this is totes crazy, bro" and their whole energy and language was just so boisterous and obnoxious and off the wall with disrespect for the property they're on. Definitely going to subscribe for more because of that.
That was an amazing video. I loved getting to see how it would have looked today. It was really interesting to see the slight changes in the architecture between the two. It was eerie seeing the two footages side by side.
Great video! I'm from Arkansas and visited the Arlington Hotel several times. I know you guys explore abandoned places, but if you are ever back in Arkansas, go visit Eureka Springs. They have a haunted hotel called The Crescent. I have also visited there and came in contact with many spooky instances on the ghost tour they offer.
Ever since i saw the original baker hotel video ive been fascinated by it. I hope it can be restored one day. You guys make awesome content and i look foward to every upload!
This was really cool to see after seeing your video about The Baker, very recently. Good job! Your nighttime explorations gave me the feel of me exploring the RMS Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA at night-----hunting ghosts that never showed up, lol. Exploring places that aren't abandoned yet is kind of cool too.
You guys're gonna hit a half million subscribers very soon, and a million not long after that. Sky's the limit for your channel. It's been great watching your production values improve and your channel grow. You guys have a lot of integrity. Keep it up.
Wow. I just watched this and the Baker St explore vid back to back having never found this channel before tonight on my way down the rabbit hole. Kewl comparison! TX
according to Wikipedia...Architect Wyatt C. Hedrick based the hotel design of the Baker hotel on the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs, Arkansas, which is no wonder they are very similar. Awesome videos peeps ...keep 'em coming....my new favourite channel!!!
Thanks for reminding me - took me years to get that song out of my head many years ago. Now repeat cycle... Hated it as much as Red, Red Wine by I think UB 40.
Most of your videos have a haunting appeal to them that I just cannot find the words to describe... I’m just drawn to them. And this one had the strongest vibe to it, despite not even being abandoned.
You should mention that this was filmed between 10pm and 2am, and that's why the place looks completely deserted. I wouldn't want this hotel's reputation to be tarnished by this misleading video.
I live in Little Rock and we ate this most recent Easter brunch here... it was wall to wall to the brim with people. We had a reservation and still stood around forever waiting to he seated. They had a whole buffet set up... it was nice..
Visited the Arlington at least once a year, every year throughout my youth. It was always so busy and the bar never had a free seat! Hot Springs is really a gem of a town, Eureka is too.
This video is stunning and something I think of every time I watch one of your videos: “I wonder what that looked like in its heyday? What was the former glory?” Fantastic. You guys are amazing.