The words "esto perpetua" emblazoned upon a stone above the entrance to Grotto Spring declare the prevailing belief that these healing waters would flow forth forever. Early townspeople discovered the spring under an overhanging rock ledge, a short distance from the well-known Dairy Spring.
Extensive street construction on "The Boulevard", as Spring Street was then called, began in 1890. This necessitated construction of an enclosure of limestone and ornamental stonework hand-worked by very skilled stonemasons. Grotto Springs [sic - Spring] was located only a few steps from the electric streetcar line.
Some of the first ordinances enacted by city government were to protect the springs for public use in perpetuity. The wooded area on the hillside above and around the spring is delineated by ordinance that appears to be Oak or Sheffield Spring described in Ordinance No. 81, dated February 15, 1886. The Sheffield family resided nearby in 1880 and may have operated the original dairy for which the hollow below this site was named.
| HM Number | HM1IP3 |
|---|---|
| Tags | |
| Placed By | Greater Eureka Springs Chamber of Commerce and the Community Development Partnership |
| Marker Condition | No reports yet |
| Date Added | Monday, January 5th, 2015 at 1:01am PST -08:00 |
| UTM (WGS84 Datum) | 15S E 433785 N 4029816 |
|---|---|
| Decimal Degrees | 36.41125000, -93.73851667 |
| Degrees and Decimal Minutes | N 36° 24.675', W 93° 44.311' |
| Degrees, Minutes and Seconds | 36° 24' 40.5" N, 93° 44' 18.66" W |
| Driving Directions | Google Maps |
| Area Code(s) | 501, 479 |
| Which side of the road? | Marker is on the right when traveling East |
| Closest Postal Address | At or near 263 Spring St, Eureka Springs AR 72632, US |
| Alternative Maps | Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap |
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