St. Elizabeth's Catholic Church

This unique 1904 church is entered through the bell tower at street level, with the sanctuary below. One of the few churches in America you enter through the roof.

Father Michael Smythe, a missionary priest from Fort Smith, initiated construction of a frame church on this limestone bluff around 1880, completing the structure by 1882 when the Diocese of Little Rock officially recognized it as a station. The church that stands today owes its existence to Richard C. Kerens, an Irish-born railroad magnate who arrived in America as an infant, made his fortune on mail delivery contracts out of Fort Smith after the Civil War, and later invested heavily in railroad companies. Kerens and General Powell Clayton chartered the Eureka Springs Railroad and convinced the Frisco line to extend service to the resort town in the early 1880s, a venture that also produced the famed 1886 Crescent Hotel just up the hill. In 1904, Kerens began building a memorial chapel on the bluff in honor of his deceased mother Elizabeth, named for the patron saint of Hungary. In 1908, after consultation with Bishop Fitzgerald of the Little Rock Diocese, a nave was attached to the end of the rotunda, and on May 11, 1909, the church was formally dedicated. Kerens funded the bell tower in 1910. The exterior was constructed from local dolomite limestone quarried from surrounding bluffs. Inside, Kerens imported marble altars and mosaic flooring from Italy. Italian marble Stations of the Cross were installed in 1958, and Father Joseph Lauro commissioned Italian sculptors to create garden statuary including Our Lady of Fatima in 1953.

The church's most distinctive feature is its entrance through the bell tower, a design so unusual it was featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not as the only church in the world entered this way. The dome was inspired by the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, giving the Ozark hillside an unexpectedly Byzantine silhouette. The church is listed on the National Historic Register and sits at 30 Crescent Drive, a short walk from the Crescent Hotel. In 1901, the Sisters of Mercy opened Hotel Dieu Hospital adjacent to the church as a convalescent facility with an attached school, serving the community for eleven years. Major restorations have continued through the decades, including interior restoration in the 1950s, a large crystal chandelier in 1983, main roof reconstruction in 2014, complete rewiring in 2018, and art restoration and ceiling painting in 2019.

The most famous spirit at St. Elizabeth's is the Lady in White, who appears in the gardens during twilight hours wearing a flowing white gown and clutching a rosary. Witnesses describe her as serene though sorrowful. Two theories attempt to explain her identity: one holds that she was a bride who died shortly before her wedding day at the church, the other that she was a nun or devoted parishioner from nearby clergy housing, possibly connected to the Sisters of Mercy who operated the adjacent hospital. She vanishes quickly when approached and has been captured unintentionally in visitor photographs.

The bell tower generates its own phenomena. Church staff and clergy report hearing unexplained footsteps ascending the stairs when no one is present. Most remarkably, the manually operated bells have chimed at odd hours, including late at night, something that should be impossible given that the bells require physical effort to ring. A retired caretaker recounted that after locking the church following a wedding rehearsal, he heard the bells ring clearly as he crossed the street. The building was empty and secured. No explanation was ever found.

In the garden and memorial areas surrounding the church, visitors report seeing shadows moving at the periphery of their vision near memorial plaques. Some describe sudden waves of grief or heaviness near specific markers. Multiple accounts describe a hunched figure kneeling beside plaques that vanishes when approached directly. During Mass, parishioners have reported flickering lights and doors that close by themselves. Online visitor reviews document sensations of invisible presences, unexplained photographs showing light anomalies resembling human silhouettes, and cold spots near the altar even during summer.

The church remains an active parish and welcomes visitors year-round. Its location just below the Crescent Hotel -- itself considered one of the most haunted hotels in America -- places it at the heart of Eureka Springs' haunted corridor, and ghost tours in the town frequently include St. Elizabeth's as a stop.