Bathhouse Row
The landmark row of early-1900s bathhouses on the park side of Central Avenue — a National Historic Landmark district inside Hot Springs National Park, and the reason the town exists.
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The historic core
Bathhouse Row & downtown
A national park that wraps a downtown, a row of grand early-1900s bathhouses, and the Central Avenue storefronts across the street — the most storied few blocks in Arkansas.
A national park that hugs Main Street
Hot Springs is unusual among American cities: its national park wraps the downtown rather than sitting off in the wilderness. Bathhouse Row — a row of grand bathhouses built largely in the early twentieth century along the east side of Central Avenue — is a National Historic Landmark district managed within Hot Springs National Park. Directly across the street, the privately owned storefronts of the Central Avenue commercial historic district face the Row, so a single block puts federal parkland, thermal springs, and turn-of-the-century commercial architecture shoulder to shoulder.
For anyone drawn to historic property here, this core matters even if the bathhouses themselves are not for sale in the conventional sense: it sets the architectural tone, the tourism economy, and the preservation expectations that ripple outward into the surrounding residential districts. The homes people actually buy sit in the neighborhoods climbing the hills around this center — but they take their identity from it.
The pieces
How the historic downtown is layered
Several overlapping historic designations meet within a few blocks of Central Avenue.
Central Avenue district
The commercial historic district across the street: early-twentieth-century storefronts, hotels, and upper-floor spaces that give downtown its period streetwall.
The thermal springs
The protected hot springs themselves — the natural resource the park was set aside to safeguard, and the origin of the bathhouse tradition.
The wider downtown
Theaters, churches, and civic buildings around the core, many individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
What the core means for a buyer
Living near the historic downtown means walkable access to the park's promenade, the bathhouses that still operate, restaurants, and the arts scene — a genuinely rare urban-in-a-national-park lifestyle. It also means buying inside a preservation-minded environment: properties in and around the commercial district may sit within designated boundaries where exterior changes draw scrutiny, and short-term-rental and commercial uses are governed by city rules that change over time. Confirm the current designation, zoning, and any review requirements for a specific address with the City of Hot Springs and the relevant historic authority before you count on a plan.
The residential historic stock — the Victorian and early-1900s houses most buyers are chasing — climbs the hillsides just beyond this core. Our Victorian homes and historic districts guides pick up there.
Watch
Walk the historic core
Bathhouse Row and Central Avenue on foot.
Walking tour — Hot Springs historic & art districtDowntown tour
Historic bathhouse tour — Bathhouse RowBathhouse RowWant to be near the historic core?
Tell us how close to Bathhouse Row and Central Avenue you want to be, and what kind of period home you're after — we'll point you to the right blocks.
Talk to a local guideRelated Hot Springs niches