On Saturday, June 11th, Biography Channel’s My Ghost Story featured one family’s story of their encounters in the Crescent Hotel…located in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. The family visits the Crescent Hotel every year but on one particular visit they experienced several unexplainable events.

You should watch the episode and hear them recount their story but I wanted to mention just one of their encounters here because based on my research, there may be some historical record to back up one of their encounters.

The mother recalls during their stay at the Crescent Hotel, that she was giving her young daughter a bath when the girl began talking as if she were having a conversation with someone. The mother thought it unusual especially because her daughter was using technical vocabulary in the conversation that the mother was unaware her daughter even knew. The words she used (like pirouette) were dance terms. When the mother asked her daughter who she was talking to, the daughter replied that she was talking to a princess and pointed out that the princess was standing right behind her mother in the doorway. The mother turned around and could not see anyone. Later in their visit, the daughter identified a woman in a historic photo as the princess she had been talking with earlier…

In the early 20th century, there was a famous dancer by the name of Irene Castle. She and her husband Vernon appeared on Broadway, popularized social dancing, and were even the subjects of a Hollywood movie, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle (starring Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire). Irene was a beautiful woman and quite socially progressive. She traveled with an all African-American orchestra, had an openly lesbian manager, and was one of the first in the United States to speak for and support animal rights. Irene Castle was so admired, that women all over the world copied her dresses and even her hairstyle (she was one of the first to “bob” her hair). After the love of her life, Vernon, died in a tragic accident she remarried and reinvented herself several times and when she entered her golden years, she and her husband at the time retired to Eureka Springs, Arkansas where she enjoyed her dogs and the last of her life. She passed away in Eureka Springs on January 25, 1969. Her home was located just behind the Crescent Hotel.

Irene was a driven and deliberate person who loved dancing and loved life. Perhaps her spirit lives on…sharing her passion and principles with a new generation.

The Crescent Hotel offers nightly tours and ghost stories. Get your tickets online here.