Woodmen of Union Building

The first bathhouses were established at the hot springs in 1830. With the growth in popularity, the United States created a reservation to prevent commercial exploitation. The nineteenth century saw the village grow into a medical-pleasure resort. The 1875 completion of a railroad from Malvern made the springs available to a larger audience.[3]

It is assumed that there was at least a small community of colored people by 1868, when Rev. Henderson Patillo and Rev. B. W. Whitlow came to Hot Springs from Malvern to preach to a group of worshippers.[3] In 1919, the Supreme Lodge of the Woodman of Union, a black social club/union/fraternity, purchased the site. In 1923, the building was erected along Malvern Avenue, between Gulpha and Garden Streets. From throughout Arkansas, African-American men came on January 17, 1924, to dedicate the Woodman of Union Building, created by the genius of J.L. Webb, Supreme Custodian of the Woodman of Union. A 100-bed hospital and nurses training school, a 75-room bath hotel, the Woodman of Union Bank, a 2,500-seat auditorium, an electrically operated printing plant, and executive offices were all located within the building. The auditorium hosted attractions such as Count Basie and Duke Ellington.[3]

In 1950, the building was purchased by the ‘’National Baptist Association, U.S.A‘’, being then known as the National Baptist Hotel and Bath House. The bathhouse was subject to federal regulations regarding bathhouse standards, like those along Bathhouse Row. The Association expanded the bathhouse and improved the facilities.[3] As segregation was coming to an end in the 1970s, integrated public facilities became prevalent, and the National Baptist Hotel saw a decline in clientele. In 1981, it closed.[3] In 1984, it was purchased for redevelopment, which was later dropped. In 1991, Hawk Management Group, Inc., of Northern Nevada purchased the building.[3]

• Brown, Dee; The American Spa, Hot Springs, Arkansas. Little Rack: Rose Publishing Co., 1982.
• Page, John C. and Laura Soulliere Harrison. Out of the Vapors: A Social and Architectural History of Bathhouse Row. U. S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 1987.
• Workers of the Writer's Program. The WPA Guide to 1930's Arkansas, with new introduction by Elliot West; Lawrence, Kansas: The University Press, 1987 (original copyright, 1941).

• National Register of Historic Places listings in Garland County, Arkansas
• Afro-American Life Insurance Company, (1976) partially re-insured policies of the Universal Life Insurance Company.
• North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, (2010) partially re-insured policies of the Universal Life Insurance company.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Woodmen of the Union Building.