The Haunted Driskill Hotel
Austin’s Most Historic Hotel
Austin, TX is fairly well-known today for being an ultra-modern hub for business and tech, but nestled among the skyscrapers and stylish tech offices sits a rich history that the city has gone to great lengths to preserve. Plenty of buildings from Austin’s past still stand today, all with their own intriguing stories to tell. The most prolific among them, however, is the haunted Driskill Hotel.
The hotel was commissioned in 1885 by a man named Jesse Driskill, and it then saw its grand opening on Christmas Eve 1886. The hotel was a monument to the fortune Driskill had amassed in his career as a cattle baron during the Civil War, built to satisfy his dream of building “the finest hotel south of St. Louis.” And even today, the Driskill stands as one of the most well-known hotels in the state, attracting tourists from all over excited to experience its mix of modern luxury and old-fashioned Texas flair.