Despite increasing competition for scarce federal funds, it is the responsibility of the National Park Service to maintain and preserve the Hot Springs bathhouses at Hot Springs National Park, Arkansas. As a result of changes in federal laws, new possibilities exist for converting the bathhouse to productive adaptive uses through a public-private partnership. Taken together, the 1980 amendments to the National Historic Preservation Act and the Economic Recovery Tax Act will have a major impact on their preservation. The National Park Service will lease six vacant buildings to the private sector for rehabilitation and adaptive use. Guided by policies that will assure the preservation of significant aspects of the bathhouses, developers will invest close to $10 million to rehabilitate the buildings and meet the present needs of Hot Springs' urban population. This major partnership between the public and private sectors will test the success of recent changes in national preservation law and policy.