Map number 25.This is the combined map of the Hot Springs North and Hot Springs South 7.5-minute quads from 1966 (1976 revisions).
This shows Hot Springs, Arkansas and the surrounding area to the south.The highway comes in from the east along Spring Street, which later became State Route 88. According to a 1945 city map, SR 88 continued west along Spring Street. The Bankhead merged from Spring Street to Benton Street. It seems in the Dunn and Locke maps to just merge directly onto Benton. This would be possible via a diagonal street called Gentry Street, which no longer exists. This street appears on 1918 and 1945 Chamber of Commerce city maps. However, the mileage from both the east and west indicates a turn on Grand Avenue, which was a major street even in 1918. This is only a block away from Gentry Street, and the map mileages are often off by more than this distance anyway. Going west, it's possible to turn west on Autumn Street, which was once Benton Street. Convention Blvd did not exist until relatively recently. (It's not even on this 1976-revised topo map.) The extreme west side of Autumn Street is one way westbound only (shown as a
magenta arrow), so I've shown the Convention Blvd detour for eastbound travel as an
orange line.
From this point, the Dunn guide follows the
red line to Central Street. The Auditorium shown is not the large convention center complex, and was once the site of the Chicago and Rock Island Railroad depot (on the south side of Benton Street just west of Cottage Street, now Opera Street). The highway went south on Broadway and west on Market to Como Square. The huge Como Hotel once stood on the south side of the square on Market between Central and Ouachita. This was the 0.0 point for the Dunn guide.
The Locke guide evidently followed the same path as the Dunn guide up to Malvern Avenue. Since the primary route in the Locke guide goes via Malvern the 0.0 point is at the Citizen's National Bank building where Malvern and Central nearly meet at Bridge Street. This beautiful wide but shallow old bank building still exists on the north side of Bridge Street. The Locke guide shows two routes to Arkadelphia. The western route is a narrow line following the same path as the Dunn guide. The main route, indicated by a thick line, goes to Malvern along US 270. This path is shown with a
purple mileage and arrow. I may get around to showing this route later in this thread. The Locke guide also shows an extension north to one of it's sponsors, the Majestic Hotel and Bath House. This building, though no longer a hotel, still exists. Even the big Majestic Hotel sign atop the building remains.
The direct path to Arkadelphia, according to the Locke guide, was a more difficult drive. Considering all the river and stream crossings, I can see why. It was a very winding path in 1918. The Malvern route went over hills, but was shorter to get to a populated place.
The exact path over the Ouachita River is a bit of a mystery, but I'll discuss that on the next map. It's likely that Higdon Ferry Road was once the main road to that ferry, but all maps show the eastern path on State Route 7.
I haven't been using the 1928 Automobile Club of Southern California strip maps from 1928 so far. These were for the 1928 motorcade from San Diego to the Broadway of America convention in Memphis that year. I haven't used them because they often show later US 70 alignments, and for the path to Hot Springs, the northern Arkansas 5 and 7 path. Now, however, the path is pretty much the same as the Dunn guide, so I'll indicate these mileages in
green.
Red = Dunn guide.
Black mileage = Locke guide, including western path to Arkadelphia.
Purple = the eastern route to Arkadelphia via Malvern.
Green = 1928 ACSC strip map mileages.
