The ghost sign is for the Southern Hotel, on the side of the 1915 Rusher Hotel Building. The Rusher closed in the 1960s, but part of it was renovated and reopened for a decade or so in the 1980s as the Great Southern Hotel.
The Southern Hotel closed decades ago, but the building lives on as home to an elegant Bridal & Formal store. See here: (
visit link)
"Brides from throughout the country flock to the small Arkansas town of Brinkley to find one of the most comprehensive resources for brides and their attendants - Low's Bridal and Formal Shop. Formerly located at what was once the stagecoach stop between Little Rock and Memphis in Downtown Brinkley. In 1996, after 19 successful years, Low’s relocatedto what had been Brinkley's Great Southern Hotel.
On the National Historic Register, Low’s building is very Victorian and very romantic. The 25,000 square feet of display space including 24 individual dressing rooms giving brides vast selection plus individual privacy. The 16-foot pressed tin ceiling and terrazzo tile floors gives a charming yet elegant feel when entering the shop. One showroom features gowns with a dreamlike decor of light blue walls, 12-foot white silk draperies and beautiful crystal chandeliers. The soft halogen lighting and romantic music complete the atmosphere. "We are hoping it will be a very enjoyable shopping experience."
Low’s has become a nationally recognized as the third largest bridal shop in the United States, stocking over 3,000 wedding dresses and 800 styles of bridesmaid gowns. Emphasis is placed on personal style, body type, color preference, textures, and overall dress design. “We then translate our brides’ dreams into reality from headpiece to shoes. . . ”
The ghost sign reads as follows:
"[on the banner]
Great Southern
[next to banner]
Hotel"
For more on the Rusher Hotel, see here: (
visit link)
"RUSHER HOTEL, BRINKLEY, MONROE COUNTY
SUMMARY
Completed in 1915, the Hotel Rusher was the most well furnished and elaborate of the commercial hotels which served during Brinkley's tenure as a railroad and manufacturing center. Established at the junction point of three major railroads, it also functioned as the social and recreational center for business men and travelers along all three lines and for the citizens of Brinkley and eastern Arkansas. The Hotel Rusher's size, location, and appointments represented the immeasurable importance of the railroads in the creation and continuance of most Arkansas towns, as well as their inseparable role in fostering commerce and industry.
ELABORATION
In 1854, construction began on Arkansas’s first railroad. Chartered the year before, the Memphis and Little Rock Railroad battled an erratic system or supply, which required the transportation of the iron rails and locomotives by steamboat, and the uncertain, swampy terrain of eastern Arkansas. Despite these difficulties, crews of Irish laborers continued the work of grading and laying rails, often forced to string the track along the crests of levees. By 1862, two sections of the road were complete, the first division between Hopefield and Madison and the third division between DeValls Bluff and Huntersville, later North Little Rock.
During the Civil War and for several years after, the second division between DeVall's Bluff and Madison remained barren, with-passage between the completed sections provided by stage and steamboat relays. In 1870, work on the second division finally resumed and section camps, such as Lick Skillet, were established along the neglected route. On April 11, 1871, the Memphis and Little Rock was opened to through rail traffic and, the next year, Lick Skillet was incorporated as Brinkley, named in honor of railroad president R.C. Brinkley. In 1882, the through station of Brinkley became a junction town, as the Texas and St. Louis Railroad extended its Arkansas line from Bird's Point to Clarendon. Both main lines eventually underwent several reorganizations. In 1891, the Texas and St. Louis line became part of the St. Louis Southwestern, or Cotton Belt, Railroad. The Memphis and Little Rock was eventually acquired by the Choctaw, Oklahoma and Gulf, which, on March 24, 1904, was leased to the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific system for 999 years.
In addition to its trunk routes, Brinkley attracted a number of short and branch lines eager to exploit the area's resources of timber and rice and its potential for manufactures. Narrow gauge roads, such as the Brinkley and Marianna, Batesville and Brinkley, and Brinkley and Cotton Plant, fed timber and agricultural products into major markets through the Cotton Belt and Rock Island systems. A third major rail line, the Iron Mountain, entered Brinkley with its White River and Helena divisions. Finally, the Rock Island added the Old Memphis and Little Rock to its revised and expanded Arkansas Division, which lured tourists from Memphis to the resorts at Hot Springs with its crack daily, “The Hot Springs Special”. By 1916, Brinkley boasted of its railroads which diverged in seven different directions and carried a combined total of thirty passenger trains and five hundred passengers per day. An early resident, in his memoir of the town, recalled that, because of the proliferation of trains and traffic, “noise was an outstanding feature of life in Brinkley.”
Brinkley's importance as a commercial center was conveyed by its location as a rail junction. This importance was reflected in the hotels which were apparent in the town from its establishment as a section camp. In the 1870s, a single story log house, which also served as a post office and store, provided lodging adequate for railroad laborers. With the abundance of rail lines, however, the influx of businessmen and travelers required more elaborate and expanded facilities. Both the Brinkley House and the Hoskin House, later renamed the Arlington Hotel, catered to the railroads' clientele. They were also similarly located, arranged on either side of the Rock Island's tracks near its junction with the Cotton Belt. On March 8, 1909, a cyclone virtually destroyed Brinkley and severely damaged the Arlington Hotel. Its owner, city alderman Gus Rusher, rebuilt the two story, forty room building and later also bought the Brinkley House. After the two story frame Brinkley House burned in 1914, Rusher laid plans to construct a larger, more modern building.
In May 1914, construction of Rusher's new commercial hotel began on the site of the Brinkley House. At an initial estimated cost of $35,000, the proposed three story, sixty room, brick and concrete building was lauded as “strictly modern (and) fireproof.” Completed in January 1915, at a final cost of $60,000, the Hotel Rusher was praised by newspapers as an “enduring monument” to its owner and “a credit to not only the city of Brinkley, but to the State at large.” On January 28, the opening night banquet was attended by nearly three hundred business, social, and political leaders from the cities served by Brinkley's railroads, including Memphis, St. Louis, Little Rock, Helena, Pine Bluff, and Hot Springs. The event was lauded as “without a doubt the largest social event ever in Brinkley.”
With its frontage on the Rock Island tracks and its location adjacent to the Rock Island's Union Passenger Depot, the Rusher was bound inseparably to the fate of the railroad in Brinkley. Following World War II, with the proliferation of automobiles and the refinement of the much deferred highway system in Arkansas, passenger service on all rail lines declined and was eventually abandoned. The once prosperous Rock Island system was especially hard hit and finally declared bankruptcy. With the removal of the Rock Island rails, the Rusher faced a vacant grade and the flow of patrons from the empty Union Depot ended. In the 1960s, a local businessman acquired the hotel and renamed it the Malmar. A portion of its third floor was converted to apartments, and a pool hall, barbershop, liquor store, and bar were installed in the lobby and dining room. In 1981, a new set of owners restored the again renamed Great Southern Hotel’s first floor lobby, restaurant, and guest rooms."