Historic Fort Smith hotel up for sale

FORT SMITH, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The historic Ward Hotel building is currently up for auction.

The auction is set to run through June 11, with the current bid being set at $200 thousand, according to a listing on commercial real estate firm Ten-X .

The former Ward Hotel in Fort Smith, Arkansas, initially opened on December 14, 1929, spanning 11 stories and 72,799 square feet, according to the Arkansas Digital Archives .

Marcel Boulicault of St. Louis, Missouri, and Haralson and Nelson of Fort Smith designed the Ward Hotel, which cost $600,000 to build and furnish, according to the Arkansas Digital Archives .

The hotel originally featured 165 rooms, a coffee shop, a barber shop and a ballroom, later expanding to 200 rooms with connecting baths.

The Ward Hotel closed in the 1960s and turned into an office building in the 1960s, according to the Ten-X listing .

The Ward Hotel is listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places as a contributing building to the West Garrison Avenue Historic District in downtown Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Those interested in bidding can visit the building’s listing on www.ten-x.com .

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