The Driskill Hotel

Texas · United States · Hotel

Cigar smoke from a dead baron and a bride in room 525, the most haunted hotel in Austin.

The Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas opened on 20 December 1886 and quickly became one of the grandest hotels in the South. It was built by the cattle baron Colonel Jesse Driskill, who died as early as 1890 and had little time to enjoy his hotel, which may be why his spirit is said to linger.

Driskill smoked cigars constantly, and many people have caught the smell of cigar smoke in the lobby even though the hotel has long been smoke free. An employee who tried to trace the smell heard a voice behind him asking for a match, but nobody was there.

Most notorious is room 525, where two tragedies unfolded a century apart. In the nineteenth century a bride took her own life in the room after her husband to be called off the wedding, and ever since guests have seen a woman in a Victorian wedding dress in the corridor outside. In 1991 a jilted socialite from Houston shot herself in the bathtub of the room after shopping at her former fiancé's expense.

Another spirit is said to be four year old Samantha Houston, daughter of a senator, who died in an accident on the hotel's grand staircase in 1887. Her laughter and bouncing ball are sometimes heard on the stairs. Guests have also described paintings whose subjects seem to move, lifts that stop on the wrong floor and a sense of being watched in the grand corridors. In 2022 the Driskill topped Yelp's list of the most haunted hotels in Austin.

Source: austinghosts.com + usghostadventures.com + moonmausoleum.com + hauntedus.com

FAQ

Where is The Driskill Hotel located?

The Driskill Hotel is in Texas, United States.

Image: ajay_suresh · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons