Congress established Hot Springs Reservation on April 20, 1832 to protect hot springs flowing from the western slope of Hot Springs Mountain. This makes it the oldest area currently in the National Park System--40 years older than Yellowstone National Park. People have used the hot spring water in therapeutic baths for more than two hundred years to treat rheumatism and other ailments. The reservation eventually developed into a well-known resort nicknamed "The American Spa" because it attracted not only the wealthy but also indigent health seekers from around the world. Today the park protects eight historic bathhouses with the former luxurious Fordyce Bathhouse housing the park visitor center. The entire "Bathhouse Row" area is a National Historic Landmark District that contains the grandest collection of bathhouses of its kind in North America. By protecting the 47 hot springs and their watershed, the National Park Service continues to provide visitors with historic leisure activities such as hiking, picnicking, and scenic drives. Hot Springs Reservation became Hot Springs National Park by a Congressional name change on March 4, 1921.

The designation of the reservation as a national park ushered in the final phase of construction culminating in the Bathhouse Row of today. In 1922 the old Government Free Bathhouse was demolished, and a new state-of-the-art bathhouse opened on Reserve and Spring Streets. In 1933 grading began on the Grand Promenade behind Bathhouse Row. In 1936 the new administration building on the corner of Reserve and Central opened, replacing the former park headquarters earlier converted from the reservation's pump house. The Imperial Bathhouse next to the administration building was razed in 1937 to make way for the Grand Promenade entrance on Reserve, although it was to be 1958 before this ambitious project was completely finished.

By the 1960s the bathing industry in the park and in the city had declined considerably. On Bathhouse Row, the eight grand bathhouses that had been thriving since their construction in the first three decades of the century were of course affected by the decline. The elegant Fordyce Bathhouse was the first to close, in 1962, followed by the Maurice, the Ozark, and the Hale in the 1970s. In 1984 the Quapaw and the Superior closed; the Lamar closed in 1985, leaving the Buckstaff as the only bathhouse still operating on Bathhouse Row.