The historic Majestic Hotel was heavily damaged by fire Thursday evening.
Hot Springs police Cpl. McCrary Means said Park Avenue will be closed Friday from the fountain at Central and Whittington avenues to the 200 block.
The fire, which began around 5:30 p.m., appeared to have started in the center section of the fifth floor of the original hotel building, which was built in 1882, and then spread to the north and south ends of the building and lower floors as the blaze burned through floors and ceilings.
Early in the evening, Hot Springs Fire Chief Ed Davis said the fire was on the fifth floor of the hotel, which has been closed since 2006, and firefighters were in the process of determining the best way to fight the blaze.
The hotel complex consists of three buildings, located at 101 Park Ave.: The Lanai Suites, built in 1957; the Lanai Towers, the tallest building in the complex, located at the west end of the property, built in the early 1960s; the original hotel, built in 1882, at the north end of the complex, where the spa and bath house were located and the fire was centralized; and the red brick building called the Annex, which is where the lobby is located, built in the 1920s.
Originally called the Avenue Hotel, the resort hotel became known as the Majestic in 1888, named for the Majestic Stove Co. of St. Louis.
