Eureka Springs Hospital

The Eureka Springs Hospital is a small Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) located just east of the historic downtown area of Eureka Springs (Carroll County). The hospital was established on October 29, 1929, as the Don Sawyer Memorial Hospital but was renamed the Eureka Springs Hospital in 1952.

The building later used as the city’s first real hospital started out as a hotel in 1887, located on the corner of Pine Street and Spring (then called Rice Street). In 1913, Robert H. Huntington took ownership of the building. Huntington was the son-in-law of politician Festus Orestes Butt and was also a medical specialist. Huntington revamped the hotel building with the newest medical technology, including an operating room, and opened the city’s first modern hospital under the name Huntington Infirmary. While the infirmary proved useful to the city, with many local doctors taking advantage of the latest medical equipment, the infirmary was closed in 1929 because it was no longer financially self-sustaining.

That same year, a community-wide effort led to the opening of the Don Sawyer Memorial Hospital, which later developed into the Eureka Springs Hospital at the same site. The hospital is run by a joint partnership between the Eureka Springs Hospital Commission members and local city leaders. The Eureka Springs Hospital Commission is made up of seven civic service volunteers appointed by the mayor and confirmed by a majority vote of the city council.

The hospital offers both emergency and outpatient services, including a twenty-four-hour emergency room that is both stroke- and trauma-certified. It offers emergency radiology services, laboratory services, and respiratory therapy, along with short-term inpatient care for emergency room patients who require overnight observation. The hospital also offers outpatient laboratory services, speech therapy, and radiology services. While the hospital does not have a dermatology department on site, it does have a dermatologist that comes to the hospital each month to help patients with skin, hair, and nail conditions. The hospital also partners with an off-site physical therapist who offers physical therapy services at the hospital and a second location in Huntsville (Madison County) by referral.

For additional information:
Eureka Springs Hospital. https://www.eurekaspringshospital.com/ (accessed October 20, 2026).

“Hospital Commission.” Eureka Springs Arkansas. https://www.eurekaspringsar.gov/hospital (accessed October 20, 2026).

“Sweet Spring Hotel—Huntington Infirmary—Sweet Spring Home” Historical Marker Database, 2015. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=80112 (accessed October 20, 2026).

Mikaela Bailey
Conway, Arkansas