User:Rachel InsideOut/Van Lyell House
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Van Lyell House[edit]
The Van Lyell House is a historic five-level mansion on Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Built in 1931 in the Mediterranean Revival style, it was the first home on Lake Hamilton.
The house was built by Mr. Van Lyell and his wife, Francis. They moved from New York in 1927 after working with the Ziegfeld Follies. In Hot Springs, Van Lyell purchased a Coca-Cola franchise, and within a few years acquired vast holdings of land in the area.
Van Lyell began building his house on a hillside above the Ouachita River. At the same time, Carpenter Dam was constructed, damming the river to create Lake Hamilton and transforming Van Lyell's hillside into a three-acre peninsula.
The house remained in the family until 1971 when Dr. William Smith and his wife, Jacquelin, purchased the home and renamed it Hamilton House. It operated as a restaurant until 2003, when the house was transferred to their daughter, Dr. Marion Smith. It now operates as a bed and breakfast and wedding venue under the name Hamilton House Estate.
The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 31, 2004[1]. It was also designated as a historic property by the State of Arkansas as "locally significant" because of its architecture and because it was the first home built on Lake Hamilton[2].