185 haunted destinations cataloged across Texas, spanning 72 counties. The collection features museum, haunted hotel, and outdoor — every listing verified with family ratings, accessibility info, and practical visit logistics.
Kerrville, TX
The Y.O. Ranch Hotel in Kerrville, Texas, takes its name from the historic Y.O. Ranch founded in 1880 by Charles Schreiner. The hotel offers 190 rooms with Hill Country and Old West design and houses the Y.O. Ranch Steakhouse. Although the hotel itself is a relatively recent build, it serves as a public expression of the Schreiner cattle and conservation legacy.
Austin, TX
The Neill-Cochran House is an 1855-1856 Greek Revival home in central Austin, designed and built by master builder Abner Cook for Washington Hill, who could not afford to occupy it. The house was leased to the Texas Institute for the Blind and served as a Federal hospital at the end of the Civil War before passing to Colonel Andrew Neill in 1876 and Judge Thomas Cochran in 1895. Since 1958 it has been operated as a house museum by The National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of Texas; it preserves Austin's only intact slave quarters.
Fort Worth, TX
Oakwood Cemetery is a 62-acre historic cemetery on the north side of the Trinity River, established when Fort Worth founder John Peter Smith deeded the land to the city in 1879. The cemetery serves as the burial place for cattle barons, mayors, gunfighters, gamblers, and bartenders from Fort Worth's frontier and Hell's Half Acre vice-district era. Oakwood was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.
Fort Worth, TX
Thistle Hill is a three-story Georgian Revival mansion built 1903-1904 for Electra Waggoner — daughter of cattle baron W. T. Waggoner — and her husband Albert Buck Wharton Jr. Electra named the home Thistle Hill and lived there briefly before selling it in 1910 to Winfield and Elizabeth Scott. The house was saved from demolition in 1976 by the Save the Scott House group and now operates as a house museum stewarded by Historic Fort Worth, Inc.
Fort Worth, TX
The White Elephant Saloon was founded in 1884 by gambler Luke Short in Fort Worth's Hell's Half Acre vice district. On February 8, 1887, Short killed former Fort Worth marshal Timothy 'Longhair Jim' Courtright in a street gunfight just outside the saloon — one of the most documented gunfighter killings of the Old West. After decades of dormancy, the saloon was reopened in the 1970s at its current Stockyards location on Exchange Avenue.
Los Fresnos, TX
Leonardo 'Leo' Aguilar Jr., fullback for the Los Fresnos Falcons, collapsed during football practice on September 29, 1970, and died twelve days later at Mercy Hospital in Brownsville. He was 17. In 1988, the Los Fresnos CISD Board of Trustees renamed the facility to Leo Aguilar Memorial Stadium in his honor, and his jersey number 44 was retired.
San Antonio, TX
Brackenridge Villa sits on the University of the Incarnate Word campus in San Antonio at the headwaters of the San Antonio River. The original single-story Sweet Homestead was built in the early 1800s by Alderman J.R. Sweet. Colonel George W. Brackenridge purchased the estate in the late 1800s and added the three-story Victorian wing for his mother. In 1897 the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word bought the 283-acre Fernridge property as the site of their new Motherhouse, which was completed on the grounds in 1900. The Villa has subsequently served as a chaplains' residence, university offices, and currently as offices and meeting space for the Sisters of Charity's General Leadership Team.
San Antonio, TX
Brooks Air Force Base operated in southeast San Antonio from 1917 until 2011, training pilots including Lindbergh and Doolittle and serving as home of the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, dedicated by President Kennedy the day before his assassination.
San Antonio, TX
The Gunter Hotel stands on a site where hospitality has operated since 1837, when the Frontier Inn welcomed pioneers. The current Italianate structure opened November 20, 1909, designed by architect John Mauran and built by the San Antonio Hotel Company. At eleven stories with 301 rooms, it was San Antonio's largest building at completion. An expansion in 1926 added three more stories. The hotel underwent a comprehensive $57 million restoration completed in 2025 and now operates as a Marriott Tribute Collection property.
San Antonio, TX
Fort Sam Houston is one of the oldest continuously active Army installations in the United States. Construction on the iconic Quadrangle began in 1876, and the post became the headquarters of the Department of Texas. The Quadrangle is a National Historic Landmark, and the fifteen Staff Post officers' quarters along the parade ground were designed by San Antonio architect Alfred Giles in the early 1880s.
San Antonio, TX
Marion Koogler McNay was born in 1883, raised in Kansas, and made her fortune in oil. She established her Spanish-Mediterranean-style villa at 6000 N New Braunfels Avenue in San Antonio in 1927, designed by Atlee B. and Robert M. Ayres. Upon her death in 1950, she bequeathed the estate, her art collection, and two-thirds of her wealth to create what became Texas's first modern art museum, which opened in 1954.
San Antonio, TX
William Menger, a German immigrant who had established the first brewery in Texas, opened the Menger Hotel on February 1, 1859, at 204 Alamo Plaza in San Antonio. Built adjacent to the Alamo ruins on the site of his brewery, it became the premier hotel in the American Southwest and hosted Presidents McKinley, Taft, Eisenhower, and Roosevelt. The hotel was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.
San Antonio, TX
Comanche Lookout Park preserves the fourth-highest point in Bexar County, San Antonio, with a surviving 1923 stone tower built by Colonel Edward Coppock. The hill served as a vantage point for the Coahuiltecan, Lipan Apache, and later the Comanche people over thousands of years. The City of San Antonio acquired the property in the 1990s and operates it as a public park.
San Antonio, TX
Our Lady of the Lake University was founded in 1895 in San Antonio by the Sisters of Divine Providence. The Catholic liberal-arts institution operates a residential west-side campus including the historic Main Building and the adjacent Sacred Heart Conventual Chapel, a Texas landmark of late-19th-century Catholic architecture.
San Antonio, TX
Santa Rosa Hospital opened in San Antonio on December 3, 1869 as the city's first private hospital, founded by three Incarnate Word Sisters who arrived during a cholera epidemic. Now Christus Santa Rosa, the downtown campus continues to operate as Christus Children's Hospital while the adjacent adult Medical Center is closing.
San Antonio, TX
The railroad crossing at Shane and Villamain Roads in south San Antonio became the subject of an urban legend claiming children killed in a bus accident push stranded cars to safety. Documented investigation found no such accident ever occurred at this location. The legend likely derives from a real 1938 school bus-train crash in Salt Lake City, Utah, that killed 23 students.
San Antonio, TX
The St. Anthony Hotel opened on Travis Park in San Antonio in 1909, financed by three cattle ranchers — A. H. Jones, B. L. Naylor, and L. J. Hart — who set out to build a luxury property to attract wealthy tourists to the growing city. Reported as the first hotel in the world to install central air-conditioning, the property has hosted presidents, film stars, and convention business for over a century and is part of Marriott's Luxury Collection.
San Antonio, TX
Lambermont, originally known as Terrell Castle, is a limestone residence in San Antonio's Government Hill district commissioned in the 1890s by attorney and diplomat Edwin Holland Terrell. Designed by English architect Alfred Giles, the castle takes its current name from Terrell's Belgian colleague, Baron Auguste Lambermont. The property currently operates as Lambermont Events, a wedding and event venue.
San Antonio, TX
The Medical Arts Building opened in 1924 as San Antonio's first skyscraper, designed in the Gothic Revival style with gargoyle exterior details depicting medical ailments including toothaches. Doctors operated private clinics throughout the tower while the upper floors served as a working hospital; the basement housed the building's morgue. The building was converted to offices in 1976 and became the Emily Morgan Hotel in 1984, now operating as a DoubleTree by Hilton.
San Antonio, TX
The Aztec Theatre opened June 4, 1926 as one of San Antonio's grand movie palaces, designed by Los Angeles firm Meyer & Holler with an elaborate Meso-American (Aztec and Maya) iconographic program. On May 4, 1932, the theater was hit by a sulfur (stench) bomb during a national wave of theater bombings linked to a projectionists' strike; six moviegoers were burned. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in October 1992 and is now operated by Live Nation.
San Antonio, TX
The Empire Theatre, now formally the Charline McCombs Empire Theatre, opened on December 14, 1914, as a European-style opera house designed by St. Louis firm Mauran, Russell & Crowe. Built by developer Thomas Brady on the site of the former Rische's Opera House, it was acclaimed as San Antonio's first modern theatre and the city's largest at the time. The building was damaged in the catastrophic San Antonio flood of 1921 and was restored in 1998; it sits directly adjacent to the larger Majestic Theatre and the two are operated as a single venue under the Majestic & Empire Theatres organization.
San Antonio, TX
Designed by atmospheric-theater pioneer John Eberson for Karl Hoblitzelle's Interstate Theatres and opened June 14, 1929, the Majestic was the first fully air-conditioned theater in Texas. With 2,264 seats, an elaborate Mediterranean-village interior, and a star-and-cloud ceiling, it is a National Historic Landmark and is operated today by the Ambassador Theatre Group.
San Antonio, TX
The Bexar County Jail at 120 Camaron Street opened in 1878 as a Romanesque limestone facility with an internal third-floor gallows where prisoners were dropped through a trap door for executions. It served as the county jail until 1962 and was later converted to hotel use in the early 21st century. Today it operates as the Holiday Inn Express San Antonio N-Riverwalk Area.
San Antonio, TX
San Fernando Cathedral was founded in 1731 by 15 families of Canary Islander settlers sent by the Spanish Crown to establish the villa of San Fernando de Béxar. The cornerstone of the current church was laid May 11, 1738, and the building was dedicated in 1755. It was elevated to a cathedral in 1874 and is the mother church of the Archdiocese of San Antonio. The cathedral contains a marble sarcophagus said to hold remains of Alamo defenders including Travis, Bowie, and Crockett.
San Antonio, TX
The Spanish Governor's Palace was completed in 1749 as the Comandancia — the residence and offices of the captain of the Presidio San Antonio de Bexar. The keystone above the entrance bears the date 1749 and the coat of arms of Spanish King Ferdinand VI. The city of San Antonio purchased the building in 1928 and restored it as a museum; it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1970.
San Antonio, TX
The Alamo began as Mission San Antonio de Valero in 1718 and was relocated to its current site in 1724. After secularization in 1793, the compound was occupied by Spanish and then Mexican military forces, and in 1836 it was the site of the 13-day siege and battle that ended on March 6 with the deaths of nearly all the Texian defenders. Today it is managed by the Texas General Land Office as a museum and shrine.
San Antonio, TX
The Crockett Hotel opened in 1909, built by the local Odd Fellows lodge on land just east of the Alamo that was part of the 1836 battlefield. A 1927 renovation by architect Henry P. Pheltz added a seventh story. The Odd Fellows sold the building in 1978, and it has operated continuously as a hotel since, becoming a Historic Hotels of America member in 2010.
San Antonio, TX
Victoria's Black Swan Inn is an 1867 Victorian-era house on 35 wooded acres along Salado Creek, in northeast San Antonio. The property sits on the site of the 1842 Battle of Salado Creek between Texan and Mexican forces, and is also associated with possible pre-colonial indigenous use. Today it operates as an event and wedding venue and a paranormal-tourism site, owned by Jo Ann Rivera.
Dallas, TX
The Lawrence Hotel at 302 South Houston Street in Dallas opened in October 1925 as the Scott Hotel, a ten-story commercial brick structure designed by C.D. Hill & Co. to serve rail passengers arriving at Union Station across the street. It operated under several names — including Bradford Hotel and Hotel Lawrence — before being purchased by IHG and operating today as the Holiday Inn Express Dallas Downtown.
Dallas, TX
Millermore is a two-story Greek Revival home completed in 1861, originally built for the Miller family on their Dallas-area plantation. The same family occupied it for more than 100 years. In 1966, the Founders Garden Club relocated the structure to Old City Park, where it became the centerpiece of what is now Dallas Heritage Village — a museum preserving 38 structures from Dallas's 1840-1910 history.
Dallas, TX
Old Parkland is the restored campus of Dallas's first public hospital, founded in 1894 and rebuilt in 1913 in the Classical Revival style. After closing as a hospital, the deteriorating complex was acquired by Crow Holdings in 2006 and reopened in 2008 as a private office campus and headquarters.
Dallas, TX
Pleasant Grove Christian Church in Dallas, Texas traces its origins to a rural Union church that met as early as 1875. The first dedicated building was constructed in 1908 and was destroyed by lightning in 1913. Subsequent sanctuaries were built in the early 20th century and in 1950, with rebuilding after a 1965 fire. The congregation continues today and is the subject of a Texas Historical Marker.
Dallas, TX
Snuffer's Restaurant & Bar opened in 1978 at 3526 Greenville Avenue in Lower Greenville, Dallas, in a building that previously operated as a pool hall. Local historians believe the property sits on or adjacent to a 19th-century children's cemetery, predating both the pool hall and the surrounding neighborhood development.
Dallas, TX
Dallas built White Rock Lake between 1910 and 1911 as a water-supply reservoir; the surrounding 1,015-acre park was developed beginning in the 1930s with major contributions from the Civilian Conservation Corps. The Lady of the Lake vanishing-hitchhiker legend has been published since at least 1943.
Dallas, TX
The Adolphus opened October 5, 1912, on Commerce Street as the flagship Dallas hotel of St. Louis beer magnate Adolphus Busch, founder of Anheuser-Busch. Designed in Beaux Arts style by Thomas P. Barnett of Barnett, Haynes & Barnett, the 22-story tower stood as the tallest building in Texas for a decade. The hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and remains an operating luxury hotel under the Marriott Autograph Collection.
Dallas, TX
The Magnolia Hotel occupies the former Magnolia Petroleum Building, a 29-story Renaissance Revival skyscraper that opened in August 1922 as the headquarters of Magnolia Petroleum. Surpassing the Adolphus to become Texas's tallest building, it gained its enduring symbol in 1934 when Magnolia installed the rotating neon Pegasus on the roof. The building was converted into the luxury Magnolia Hotel in the late 1990s.
Dallas, TX
The Majestic Theatre opened April 11, 1921 on Elm Street in downtown Dallas as the flagship vaudeville house of Karl Hoblitzelle's Interstate Amusement Company. Designed by atmospheric-theater architect John Eberson in Renaissance Revival style, it became the first Dallas building listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. The City of Dallas now operates the venue as a performing-arts space.
Dallas, TX
The 1892 Dallas County Courthouse — known as Old Red for its red-sandstone exterior — was designed by Max A. Orlopp Jr. in Romanesque Revival style and served as the sixth Dallas County courthouse after a sequence of earlier structures lost to fire. Restored in the 2000s, it housed the Old Red Museum of Dallas County History & Culture (2007–early 2020s) before the Texas Fifth District Court of Appeals reoccupied the building in 2024.
Dallas, TX
Sons of Hermann Hall, at 3414 Elm Street in Deep Ellum, was built in 1910–1911 as a meeting hall for the Sons of Hermann, a German fraternal organization. The two-story wood-frame building is a Texas Historic Landmark and is described in local coverage as Dallas's oldest free-standing wooden structure. It remains active as a fraternal hall, bar, dance floor, and live-music venue.
Dallas, TX
The Stoneleigh opened in 1923 in Dallas's Uptown neighborhood as the city's second-oldest hotel. The high-rise is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is operated today as Le Méridien Dallas, The Stoneleigh. In the 1930s, the property was purchased by Colonel Harry Stewart, who converted the top floor into the first penthouse suite in Dallas.
Dallas, TX
The Sullivan House is one of more than two dozen pre-1910 Dallas structures relocated to Dallas Heritage Village, a living-history museum at Old City Park that opened in 1966. The Sullivan family — including Daniel F. Sullivan, Dallas's first Water Commissioner — occupied the house for nearly a century in the Cedars neighborhood before the structure was moved to the village. From 1936 to 1941, City Park was called Sullivan Park in his honor.
Austin, TX
The Driskill opened on December 20, 1886, in downtown Austin as the grandest hotel in central Texas. Colonel Jesse Lincoln Driskill, a Tennessee-born cattle baron who had supplied beef to the Confederate Army and Texas Rangers, financed the construction. A harsh winter and drought devastated his herds and forced him to sell the hotel in 1888; he died in 1890.
Austin, TX
Colonel Jesse Lincoln Driskill, a Tennessee-born cattle baron who supplied beef to the Confederate Army and later the Texas Rangers, opened The Driskill Hotel on December 20, 1886. Its first event, two weeks after opening, was the inaugural ball for Texas Governor Sul Ross. Driskill sold the hotel in 1888 after severe drought devastated his cattle herds and died in 1890. The hotel has hosted every Texas governor's inaugural ball since 1887.
Austin, TX
The Austin Scottish Rite Theater at 18th and Lavaca was erected in 1871, the year Austin became the permanent capital of Texas, as a German opera house, biergarten, and gymnastics hall for a local German social organization. It functioned as a German opera house for roughly 40 years before the Scottish Rite Masons purchased the property in 1910 and have remained tenants since. It is Austin's oldest standing theater.
Austin, TX
The Commodore Perry Estate was built in 1928 for cotton entrepreneur and real estate developer Edgar Howard 'Commodore' Perry on a 10-acre site in Austin's Hyde Park/Hancock area. The Italian Renaissance Revival mansion was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in August 2001. After housing Saint Mary's Academy from 1944 to 1972 and several subsequent schools, the property was restored and reopened in 2020 as a 54-room hotel within the Auberge Resorts Collection.
Austin, TX
The Goodall Wooten House was completed in 1900 as a wedding gift from prominent Austin physician and businessman Dr. Goodall Wooten to his son Goodall and daughter-in-law Ella Newsome Wooten. The Greek Revival mansion stands at 1900 Rio Grande Street, four blocks from the University of Texas campus, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. After a 2013 restoration, it reopened as Hotel Ella, a 47-room boutique hotel preserving the original structure.
Austin, TX
The Littlefield House is an 1893 Victorian mansion built for Confederate veteran, cattleman, and banker Major George Washington Littlefield and his wife Alice Tillar Littlefield on the edge of the original Forty Acres of the University of Texas. The architect was San Antonio's James Wahrenberger. The house has been owned by UT Austin since 1935 and is used for university functions and event space.
Austin, TX
The Millett Opera House opened on October 28, 1878 as an 800-seat opera house built by Austin lumber merchant Charles F. Millett to a design by Italian-born architect Frederick Ruffini. At the time of its opening it housed the largest enclosed performance space in Texas. The building has been the home of The Austin Club, a private social club, since 1981 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Austin, TX
Moonshine Patio Bar & Grill opened in 2003 inside the historic Waterloo Compound at 303 Red River Street in downtown Austin. The compound is a cluster of mid-1800s buildings — a mercantile founded by Mr. Hofheintz that gave the site its 'Waterloo' name (Austin's original 1839-era name), to which the Reissig family later added a saloon and domino parlor. Waller Creek runs immediately east of the compound.
Austin, TX
Oakwood Cemetery, originally known as City Cemetery, was established in 1839 as Austin's first municipal burial ground. Spread across 40 acres in central east Austin, it holds more than 23,000 interments dating to the founding of the city, including historically separate sections for Austin's Black, Latino, and Jewish communities. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
Austin, TX
The Paramount Theatre opened on October 11, 1915 as the Majestic Theatre, a 1,200-seat vaudeville and movie palace on Congress Avenue in downtown Austin. It was renamed the Paramount Theatre in 1930 after acquisition by Karl Hoblitzelle's Interstate Amusement chain. The Paramount hosted Harry Houdini, Helen Hayes, Katherine Hepburn, and the Marx Brothers and remains an active live-performance venue under the nonprofit Austin Theatre Alliance.
Austin, TX
The Texas State Capitol is the seat of Texas state government in downtown Austin, designed by Detroit architect Elijah E. Myers and constructed from 1882 to 1888 in the Italian Renaissance Revival style. At dedication it was the seventh-tallest building in the world. The Capitol houses the chambers of the Texas Legislature and the Office of the Governor and was the site of the only assassination of a sitting Texas statewide elected official inside the building.
Austin, TX
The Walter Tips House was built in 1876 in downtown Austin as the residence of Walter Tips (1841-1911), a German immigrant hardware merchant and Texas state senator. In 1975 the house was scheduled for demolition; Franklin Savings Association purchased the structure, moved it intact to 2336 South Congress Avenue, and reopened it as a branch office. In 2026 the building was rebranded as Walter's Tavern.
El Paso, TX
Concordia Cemetery in El Paso, Texas has hosted burials since 1856, when it began as a family plot on a ranch owned by Don Hugh Stephenson. The first burial took place that year. The cemetery expanded to absorb 60,000 interments representing nearly every strand of El Paso's history: Buffalo Soldiers from the 9th and 10th Cavalry, Confederate and Union veterans, Texas Rangers, Spanish-American War veterans, and the many victims of smallpox and influenza epidemics.
El Paso, TX
The El Paso Museum of Art is a public art museum at Arts Festival Plaza in downtown El Paso, Texas. It emphasizes Latin American and regional collections and has been a free civic institution for decades. The building's specific construction history was not found during research.
El Paso, TX
Loretto Academy at 1300 Hardaway Street in El Paso opened on September 11, 1923, founded by Mother M. Praxedes Carty of the Sisters of Loretto. The campus was designed by El Paso architect Henry Trost and built on 19 acres in the Austin Terrace area, then open desert on a hilltop north of downtown. The school remains an active independent Catholic institution serving pre-K through grade 12.
El Paso, TX
The main downtown branch of the El Paso Public Library at 501 N Oregon St sits on land that, in the 19th century, was part of the old Fort Bliss cemetery. According to El Paso Times historical reporting, when the library was first established on the site (around 1904), remains were exhumed and reinterred at Concordia Cemetery, though local reporting notes persistent claims that some graves were never fully relocated.
El Paso, TX
The El Paso Playhouse is the longest-running community theater company in El Paso, founded in 1963 as the Festival Theater. The company has operated since at 2501 Montana Avenue in a building that was previously a church; the structure is reported to be more than a century old. The property was originally financed through the generosity of local businessman William Kastrin.
El Paso, TX
Two-story Art Deco brick firehouse on the northwest corner of Santa Fe and W Paisano (then 2nd Street), designed by the prolific El Paso firm Trost & Trost — specifically by Gustavus A. Trost — and opened September 18, 1930. The building is owned by the City of El Paso.
El Paso, TX
Hotel Paso del Norte opened Thanksgiving Day 1912 as a 351-room luxury hotel financed by Zack T. White and designed by El Paso's prolific Trost & Trost firm. During the 1914 Mexican Revolution, guests reportedly watched firefights from the rooftop terraces. Operated by Camino Real Hotels for decades, the property was acquired by The Meyers Group in 2016, underwent a major renovation, and reopened October 8, 2020 as part of Marriott's Autograph Collection.
El Paso, TX
The Magoffin Home is a 19-room, 8-fireplace adobe Territorial-style homestead built in 1875 for Joseph Magoffin, a former mayor of El Paso. The Magoffin family descendants lived in the home until 1976, when the City of El Paso and the State of Texas jointly purchased the property. It is now a Texas Historical Commission state historic site and museum.
El Paso, TX
Monteleone's Ristorante is a family-owned Italian restaurant opened by Gary Monteleone and his wife Laura in 2001 in a 100-plus-year-old central El Paso building at 3023 Gateway Blvd W. The neighboring building, into which the Monteleones later expanded, previously housed the Circulo Espirita San Pablo, a 1922-chartered congregation of the Texas Spiritualist Association.
El Paso, TX
The building opened between 1905 and 1907 as the Albert Baldwin Sanatorium, founded by David Gilmore Baldwin and named for his father, who had contracted tuberculosis and traveled to El Paso for the dry-climate cure. The facility later evolved into Southwestern General Hospital, which filed for bankruptcy and ceased medical operations in August 2007. The structure at 1221 N Cotton currently houses El Paso LTAC Hospital, an active long-term acute care facility.
El Paso, TX
The Plaza Theatre opened September 12, 1930 on Pioneer Plaza in downtown El Paso. Developer Louis L. Dent commissioned the Spanish Colonial Revival movie palace in 1927, and the inaugural night drew a crowd of 2,410. Its lavish interior was designed to evoke 'the fabled beauty of Old Spain and the charm of Old Mexico.' After decades of decline, the theatre was extensively restored and reopened as a performing-arts venue, now home to the Plaza Classic Film Festival and a wide range of touring performances.
Houston, TX
The Bob Casey Federal Courthouse at 515 Rusk Street in Houston has served as the seat of the Southern District of Texas since 1962. Named after U.S. Representative Robert R. Casey, the building houses six New Deal-era murals painted by Jerry Bywaters and Alexandre Hogue in 1941, depicting the Houston Ship Channel — works rediscovered in 1976 after decades in storage.
Houston, TX
Jefferson Davis Hospital was Houston's first centralized public hospital, opening on March 15, 1925 atop the 1840 Houston City Cemetery. After decades of mixed use and vacancy, it was rehabilitated in 2003-2005 as the Elder Street Artist Lofts and listed on the National Register in 2005.
Houston, TX
La Carafe occupies the oldest surviving commercial building in Houston — a two-story brick structure built in 1860 as the Kennedy Bakery, replacing an 1847 wooden building destroyed by fire. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it anchors the Market Square Historic District and has operated continuously as a public venue since the Civil War era.
Houston, TX
The building at 717 Franklin Street was originally part of the 1892 Houston Ice and Brewing Co. (Magnolia Brewery) complex on Buffalo Bayou, which evolved from an 1869 ice company into one of Texas' largest pre-Prohibition breweries. The Brewery Tap, a British-style pub, has operated in the surviving building since 1987.
Houston, TX
The Niels Esperson Building (1927) and Mellie Esperson Building (1941) form a connected downtown Houston office complex designed by theater architect John Eberson. The Niels building was commissioned by Mellie Esperson as a memorial to her husband Niels, an oil and real estate tycoon who died in 1922; Mellie oversaw both buildings until her death in 1945. The Italian Renaissance-style towers remain Houston landmarks.
Houston, TX
Glenwood Cemetery was established in 1871 as Houston's first professionally designed cemetery, laid out in the garden-cemetery style that swept American urban planning in the mid-nineteenth century. It accepted its first burial in 1872 and quickly became both a burial ground and a weekend recreational destination. Notable burials include Howard Hughes Jr., Republic of Texas president Anson Jones, Hollywood actress Gene Tierney, and many other figures central to Houston business and political history.
Houston, TX
The Houston Zoo opened in Hermann Park in 1922 when the City of Houston moved its animals from Sam Houston Park to a larger site. Hans Nagel, a German-born lion tamer, was hired as the first zookeeper and acquired hundreds of animals during his tenure. On the evening of November 17, 1941, Nagel was shot six times and killed by Houston police officer Harold M. Warren in Hermann Park; Warren was acquitted on grounds of self-defense.
Houston, TX
The Julia Ideson Building opened in 1926 as the central library of the Houston Public Library, designed in Spanish Renaissance Revival style by Ralph Adams Cram of Boston. It served as Houston's central library from 1926 to 1976 and was renamed in 1951 in honor of Julia Bedford Ideson, the city's first professional librarian. It now houses the Houston Metropolitan Research Center.
Houston, TX
Built in 1926 by Houston investor Michele DeGeorge and designed by Houston architect Joseph Finger, the building opened November 21, 1926 as the Auditorium Hotel. It was renamed The Lancaster Hotel in 1983 and designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark in 1984. The Lancaster is the longest continuously operated hotel in Houston and remains the cornerstone hospitality property in Houston's Theater District.
Houston, TX
The Rice Hotel opened May 17, 1913, as Jesse H. Jones's seventeen-story grand hotel on the site of the former Capitol of the Republic of Texas. It hosted six U.S. presidents and was the building where John F. Kennedy stayed on the night of November 21, 1963 — his last night before the Dallas assassination. The hotel closed in 1977, sat vacant for two decades, and reopened in 1998 as luxury loft apartments now known simply as The Rice.
Fort Worth, TX
The structure locals call the Whiting Castle began as an 1860s rock farmhouse on the shore of Lake Worth, west of Fort Worth. Samuel and Bess Whiting acquired the property in the 1920s and oversaw a decade of renovations that added a crenellated round tower and rear keep. Mrs. Whiting named the finished house Inverness in 1938.
Fort Worth, TX
The building at 812 Main Street in Fort Worth was constructed in 1890 as an upper-class bathhouse on the edge of Hell's Half Acre — a 2.5-acre stretch of downtown Fort Worth notorious for saloons, gambling halls, and prostitution. The area was known as Fort Worth's 'Bloody Third Ward' and was cleared in the early 20th century.
Fort Worth, TX
The Fort Worth Zoo opened in 1909 and is the oldest continuously operating zoo in Texas. It sits on 64 acres of Forest Park along the Trinity River. The zoo has consistently ranked among the top in the United States in independent reviews.
Fort Worth, TX
Log Cabin Village at 2100 Log Cabin Village Lane in Fort Worth is a living history museum comprising authentic 19th-century log structures relocated from North Texas sites. The Foster Cabin — built in 1853 near Port Sullivan, Texas — is the largest of its kind surviving from the mid-19th century and served as a plantation home before its preservation and relocation.
Fort Worth, TX
The Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District developed around the 1902 establishment of the Fort Worth Stockyards Company on the Trinity River north of downtown. At peak operation in the early 20th century, the facility processed millions of cattle and hogs annually, making Fort Worth one of the largest livestock markets in the Southwest.
Fort Worth, TX
The Jett Building at 400 Main Street is a three-story commercial building on the corner of Third and Main, built around 1902 to serve as the Fort Worth ticket office and conductors' bunkhouse for the Northern Texas Traction Company — the interurban electric railway that ran between Dallas, Fort Worth, and Cleburne. The building is most famous for Richard Haas's 1985 trompe-l'oeil Chisholm Trail mural on its south facade, restored in 2013 when the Sundance Square Plaza opened to its south.
Fort Worth, TX
Miss Molly's Hotel opened June 15, 1910 above an Exchange Avenue storefront as the Palace Rooms, an upscale boarding house serving cattlemen and businessmen. During Prohibition it operated as a speakeasy called The Oasis; in the 1940s it became a brothel known as the Gayatte (Gayette) Hotel. It now operates as Fort Worth's oldest bed-and-breakfast, with eight themed rooms.
Fort Worth, TX
The Stockyards Hotel opened in 1907 as a three-story brick hotel in the heart of the Fort Worth Stockyards livestock-trading district. Originally built by Colonel T. M. Thannisch, it has hosted cattlemen, oilmen, rodeo performers, and — most famously — Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow during their 1933 crime spree. The hotel is a contributing structure to the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District.
Corpus Christi, TX
Bill Witt Park in Corpus Christi sits on the site of a significant WWII-era structure. The airplane hangar, built in 1941, functioned as a training and housing facility during World War II. It later served as a NASA tracking station for the Mercury and Gemini space programs, including training for astronaut Neil Armstrong. The hangar was demolished in 2008.
Corpus Christi, TX
Calallen High School was founded in 1928 as a three-grade institution serving a rural cattle ranching community established in 1910 by early rancher Calvin Joseph Allen. The school was annexed by Corpus Christi in 1970 and continues to serve grades 9-12 as a standard public education facility.
Corpus Christi, TX
On March 31, 1995, Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla-Perez was fatally shot in Room 158 of the Days Inn at 901 Navigation Boulevard in Corpus Christi by Yolanda Saldivar, the president of her fan club, who had embezzled from the singer. The motel building still stands and operates today as a Red Roof Inn.
Corpus Christi, TX
Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas is a public community college serving South Texas since 1935. The East Campus Memorial Classroom Building is a historically designated structure on the campus, notable for hosting meetings and speeches during the Chicano civil rights movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Corpus Christi, TX
Heritage Park at 1581 N. Chaparral Street in Corpus Christi, Texas contains eleven historic homes, several recorded as Texas Historical Landmarks, with the oldest dating to 1851. The Sidbury House, built in 1893, is the only surviving High Victorian structure in the city. Multiple homes now function as cultural museums operated by civic organizations.
Corpus Christi, TX
USS Lexington (CV-16) is an Essex-class aircraft carrier commissioned in February 1943. Nicknamed the Blue Ghost by Japanese propaganda broadcasters during World War II after multiple incorrect reports of her sinking, the carrier served through the Pacific campaign earning eleven battle stars. The Lexington was decommissioned in 1991 and opened as the Lexington Museum on the Bay in November 1992.
Galveston, TX
Ashton Villa is an 1859 Italianate brick mansion on Broadway in Galveston, Texas, built for James Moreau Brown — one of the wealthiest men in antebellum Texas. The house served as a military hospital and successive headquarters for Confederate and Union forces during the Civil War. Brown's daughter Bettie, known as the Texas Princess, became one of late 19th-century America's most-traveled independent women.
Galveston, TX
The Bishop's Palace, originally Gresham's Castle, was designed by Galveston architect Nicholas J. Clayton and built between 1887 and 1893 for attorney Walter Gresham and his wife Josephine. The American Institute of Architects ranks it among the 100 most significant buildings in the United States.
Galveston, TX
Hotel Galvez — now Grand Galvez Resort — is a Spanish Colonial Revival hotel on Galveston's seawall, opened in 1911 to restore tourism after the 1900 Storm. The site adjacent to the hotel was previously occupied by St. Mary's Orphan Asylum, where ten Sisters of Charity and 90 orphan children drowned during the September 8, 1900, hurricane. The hotel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Galveston, TX
The 1895 Moody Mansion at 2618 Broadway in Galveston, Texas, is a 30,000-square-foot Richardsonian Romanesque house designed by English-born architect William H. Tyndall. Built for grocery merchant Richard S. Willis's widow Narcissa, it was purchased by financier William L. Moody Jr. shortly after the 1900 Galveston Hurricane and remained in the Moody family for 83 years.
Galveston, TX
Stewart's Mansion is an 8,200-square-foot Spanish Colonial Revival residence built in 1926 on Galveston's West End. Industrialist George Sealy Jr. commissioned San Antonio architects Atlee B. and Robert M. Ayres for the design and called the property Isla Ranch. Maco Stewart, founder of Stewart Title Co., bought the estate in 1933. After decades of decline, the mansion has been restored as part of the Bayside at Waterman's development.
Galveston, TX
Grand Galvez, originally Hotel Galvez, opened in 1911 as part of Galveston's recovery from the catastrophic 1900 hurricane. The Spanish Colonial Revival landmark on Seawall Boulevard is the only historic beachfront hotel on the Texas Gulf Coast and now operates as part of Marriott's Autograph Collection.
Laredo, TX
The Laredo Civic Center at 2400 San Bernardo Avenue served as the city's primary public performance venue for decades. In 2013, the City of Laredo sold the complex to the Laredo Independent School District for $15.9 million; the Civic Center Ballroom was demolished and the auditorium was renovated into the LISD Performing Arts Center.
Laredo, TX
La Posada Hotel in downtown Laredo incorporates four historic structures spanning nearly two centuries. The primary building was Laredo High School, constructed in 1916 on the site of a Spanish Colonial government building, and converted to a hotel in 1961. Adjacent structures include an 1830s convent and the former capitol building of the Republic of the Rio Grande.
Laredo, TX
Lake Casa Blanca occupies land first settled in 1754 when Tomás Sánchez de la Barrera y Gallardo, the captain of Laredo, founded a settlement on two Spanish land grant parcels. The ruins of the original Casa Blanca structure remain within the state park boundaries. The ballroom referenced in the ghost legend was associated with social events at the lake through much of the 20th century.
Laredo, TX
Fort McIntosh was established on the Rio Grande bluff at Laredo on March 3, 1849, named in honor of Lt. Col. James Simmons McIntosh who died at the Battle of Molino del Rey during the Mexican-American War. The fort served as a military post through World War II and was decommissioned in 1946. Laredo Junior College was founded on the site in 1947 to serve returning veterans; it became Laredo Community College in 1993.
Laredo, TX
Mall del Norte opened in Laredo, Texas on August 10, 1977, designed by William Graves of Gordon Sibeck and Associates of Dallas. At 1.2 million square feet, it is the second-largest mall in South Texas and one of the largest in the state. The mall has undergone four major renovations, in 1991, 1993, 2007, and 2012.
Laredo, TX
John King Beretta, a San Antonio merchant who would become known as the Dean of Texas Bankers, opened a private bank in Laredo in 1892; the U.S. Treasury chartered the Laredo National Bank in 1895. The headquarters at 700 San Bernardo Avenue was rebuilt in 1979–1983 on the site of the former Robert E. Lee and Plaza Hotels. The bank merged into Compass Bank on March 13, 2008, ending more than a century of independent operation.
Mineral Wells, TX
The Baker Hotel opened in 1929 in Mineral Wells, Texas as a 14-story, 450-room Spanish Colonial Revival resort hotel built by T.B. Baker around the town's mineral springs. It was the first air-conditioned hotel in Texas and one of the first with an Olympic-sized swimming pool. The hotel hosted celebrity guests through the 1930s and 1940s, declined with the mineral-springs tourism economy, and closed in 1972. It sat abandoned until a $65 million restoration began in 2019 to reopen the property as The Baker Hotel and Spa.
Mineral Wells, TX
Camp Wolters opened in 1925 as a Texas National Guard training site for the 56th Cavalry Brigade. During World War II it was the largest U.S. Army Infantry Replacement Training Center, peaking at 30,000 men. In 1956 it became the U.S. Army Primary Helicopter School; nearly every helicopter pilot who flew in Vietnam trained at Fort Wolters. The base closed in 1973.
Mineral Wells, TX
Haunted Hill House at 501 NE 1st Street in Mineral Wells, Texas was established in 1880 as an A-frame home belonging to one of the founding families of Mineral Wells. From 1880 through early 1929, the property functioned as a makeshift hospital for the region. During and after that period it became associated with illegal activity including gambling, bootlegging, and prostitution.
Abilene, TX
Lake Fort Phantom Hill is a reservoir north of Abilene, Texas, named for the nearby 1850s frontier fort. The fort was built in the early 1850s to protect westbound settlers and was occupied for only a few years before being burned and abandoned. The lake itself was created by impoundment of Elm Creek.
Abilene, TX
The motel referenced in the Shadowlands report as 'The Travel Lodge Motel' in Abilene appears to correspond to the Travel Inn Abilene at 2202 West Overland Trail, just off Interstate 20 in west Abilene. The motel is a roughly fifty-room economy property serving the I-20 corridor between Dallas and El Paso.
Brownsville, TX
Camp Lula Sams was founded in the 1920s by local philanthropist Lula Sams to provide outdoor recreation for children. The camp operated as a Girl Scout facility from the 1950s through the 1980s, serving as a cherished destination for generations of South Texas youth. In 2015, IDEA Public Schools purchased the property and established Camp RIO, which operates summer programming while preserving the historic site's cultural heritage.
Brownsville, TX
Fort Brown, originally Fort Texas, was the first major United States military post on the Rio Grande, built by General Zachary Taylor in 1846 across from Matamoros. The post was the site of the May 1846 Siege of Fort Texas, the first active combat of the Mexican-American War, during which Major Jacob Brown was mortally wounded; the fort was renamed in his honor. The site is part of Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park interpretation today.
Fort Davis, TX
Fort Davis National Historic Site preserves a frontier U.S. Army fort that operated from 1854 to 1891 along the San Antonio-El Paso Road in West Texas. After the Civil War, the post became home to the all-Black 24th and 25th Infantry and 9th and 10th Cavalry regiments — the Buffalo Soldiers. The site became a National Historic Site in 1961.
Fort Davis, TX
Fort Davis was a U.S. Army post in West Texas from 1854 to 1891, stationed to protect travelers along the San Antonio-El Paso Road and the Chihuahua Trail. Today it is operated by the National Park Service as Fort Davis National Historic Site, and the restored Post Hospital, completed in 1875, is one of the best-preserved frontier-era army hospitals in the Southwest.
Goliad, TX
Mission Nuestra Señora del Espíritu Santo de Zúñiga was established in 1722 by Franciscan priests to Christianize the Karankawa people and secure the Texas coastline from French expansion. Relocated three times, it reached its permanent site on the San Antonio River near Goliad in 1749. By 1788, the mission operated over 15,000 head of cattle — a figure that may have reached 40,000 at peak production.
Goliad, TX
Presidio La Bahia in Goliad, Texas, is one of the most significant sites of the Texas Revolution and one of the best-preserved Spanish colonial forts in North America. Founded in 1749 on its current site, it was the location of the Goliad Massacre on March 27, 1836 — the execution of approximately 341 Texan prisoners of war by the Mexican Army on the orders of General Antonio López de Santa Anna.
Jefferson, TX
The Excelsior House Hotel in Jefferson, Texas, dates to the 1850s and is recognized as one of the oldest continuously operating hotels in East Texas. The property is operated by the Jefferson Historical Society and has hosted Ulysses S. Grant, Oscar Wilde, Rutherford B. Hayes, and Lady Bird Johnson.
Jefferson, TX
The Jefferson Palace Hotel occupies the oldest building in Texas still operating as a hotel, constructed in 1851 by Jefferson's founder, Allen Urquhart. Before its current use, the structure housed more than 40 different businesses over 170 years. Jefferson, Texas was a major 19th-century port city on Caddo Lake before the Army Corps of Engineers redirected the waterway in 1874.
Lubbock, TX
The Pioneer Hotel at 1200 Broadway Street was constructed during the 1920s as a premier eleven-story lodging establishment during Lubbock's economic boom period. The building served as the city's flagship hotel for decades. Following periods of decline and extensive renovation, the structure now houses the Pioneer Pocket Hotel and mixed-use retail spaces, preserving its distinctive renaissance revival architecture.
Lubbock, TX
The City of Lubbock Cemetery was established in 1892 with the burial of Cochran County cowboy Henry Jenkins. It now holds more than 60,000 graves across roughly 350 acres, ranking as the third-largest cemetery in Texas. Among its most-visited graves is that of musician Buddy Holly, who died in the February 1959 plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa.
Mission, TX
La Lomita Mission is a small stone chapel built in 1899 by Oblate priests on a Rio Grande hilltop five miles south of what is now Mission, Texas. The Oblate Fathers received the property as a bequest in 1861 and used it as a circuit-riding waystation for decades before the residential headquarters of a new Oblate mission district was established here. When the city of Mission was founded in 1908, it was named in the chapel's honor.
Mission, TX
La Lomita Chapel is a 19th-century Oblate mission site near Mission, Texas — the city from which Mission takes its name. The chapel served the Rio Grande Valley Catholic community through the late 19th century before its primary structure was destroyed by fire. The remaining grounds are near the Rio Grande and Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park.
San Angelo, TX
Fort Concho was established in November 1867 at the confluence of the North and South Concho Rivers to protect West Texas frontier settlements. It served as the principal base of the 4th Cavalry from 1867 to 1875 and the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry from 1875 to 1882. Designated a National Historic Landmark District on July 4, 1961, the fort is operated as a museum by the City of San Angelo.
San Angelo, TX
The property at 415 W Beauregard Avenue in San Angelo, Texas originally operated as a Howard Johnson Inn and is now an Econo Lodge. No documented historical incidents at this specific address were found during research.
Alpine, TX
Sul Ross State University was founded in 1917 as Sul Ross Normal College and became a four-year university in 1969. Named after Texas Governor and Confederate General Lawrence Sullivan Ross, the institution opened operations on June 14, 1920. Fletcher Hall, named after the institution's early president Thomas J. Fletcher, served as a residential facility housing 110 students (110 residents, both male and female) and continues to operate as both primary and overflow housing for contemporary students.
Andrews, TX
Shafter Lake was a short-lived West Texas boomtown platted in 1907 on the north shore of an alkali playa lake. It briefly served as a rival for the Andrews County seat, peaked near 500 residents around 1910, then collapsed after losing the county-seat election and is now a ghost town with a small cemetery.
Anson, TX
The Anson Lights are a long-documented 'ghost light' phenomenon on a dirt road beside Mount Hope Cemetery just outside Anson, the seat of Jones County in West Texas. The light has drawn carloads of visitors for decades and was featured on the TV series Unsolved Mysteries.
Arlington, TX
River Legacy Park is a 1,300-acre urban park along the West Fork of the Trinity River in northern Arlington, Texas. The park borders the historic Mosier Valley community, one of the earliest freedmen's settlements established in Texas after emancipation, and includes the River Legacy Living Science Center.
Athens, TX
The Monkey Bridge legend in Athens, Texas centers on a circus that traveled through the early town. In the most plausible version of the story, a circus wagon overturned near the bridge and some monkeys escaped into the surrounding woods. The full elaboration — including a man named Reverend Fuller who allegedly collected the monkeys for dark purposes and underground pentagram tunnels — has been thoroughly debunked by local researchers and geologists.
Baird, TX
Belle Plain Cemetery is the most-intact surviving feature of the lost West Texas town of Belle Plain, established in 1870 in Callahan County and abandoned within 25 years. Belle Plain was the county seat from 1877 to 1883 and home to Belle Plain College, one of the first institutions of higher education in West Texas. The drought of 1886 to 1887 effectively ended the town's viability.
Bandera, TX
Bandera Pass is a natural hill country divide separating Kerr County and Bandera County in South-Central Texas. The pass sits along roads that formed part of the 19th-century frontier corridors between San Antonio and the Texas hill country settlements, and it was the scene of documented violent encounters between settlers, Apache raiding parties, and mail riders during the 1800s.
Blooming Grove, TX
Lone Oak Cemetery is a small rural burial ground located approximately two miles off a dirt road outside Blooming Grove in Navarro County, Texas. The cemetery serves the rural community and is accessible to the public. No documented construction date or historical records for the cemetery were found in available sources.
Brackettville, TX
Fort Clark was established on June 20, 1852, at Las Moras Springs near present-day Brackettville, Texas, to protect the southern border and the wagon road to El Paso. The post served as a major cavalry installation through World War II and was home to the Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts beginning in 1872. The fort is now a private residential community with an active museum.
Brady, TX
The McCulloch County Courthouse in Brady, Texas was completed in 1900 by contractors Martin and Moodie on the site of an 1879 courthouse that developed structural failure within two years. The present three-story building was designed in the Richardson Romanesque style with native local sandstone, featuring a Victorian cupola, flanking turrets, and arched windows. A 2004-2009 restoration culminated in rededication on September 5, 2009.
Brazoria County, TX
Bailey's Prairie is named after James Briton Bailey, a quarrelsome North Carolina-born settler who joined Stephen F. Austin's colony in Texas. Bailey received land rights along the Brazos River despite chronic conflicts with Austin's authority. He died of cholera on December 6, 1832, at approximately age 53. The area retains his name to this day.
Brownwood, TX
Lake Brownwood is an artificial reservoir on Pecan Bayou, authorized in 1929 after a devastating 1900 flood and developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps between 1934 and 1942. The lake opened with Lake Brownwood State Park in 1938. The Flat Rock area on the south shore operates as a public recreation site with boat ramp, camping, and swimming.
Bryan, TX
The Schulman Theater was a movie theater in Bryan, Texas, part of the Schulman family's long-running Central Texas cinema operations. The building was later converted and is now part of Blinn College's Bryan campus, known as the CPC Building.
Bullard, TX
The Killough Massacre occurred on October 5, 1838, near Larissa in northwestern Cherokee County, Texas, when 18 members of the Killough family settlement were killed or abducted. The Killough family had emigrated from Alabama in 1837 and settled on land in disputed Cherokee territory. Later historical investigation established that the attack was conducted by white, Mexican, and Indian renegades from Nacogdoches — not by the Cherokee, who have long maintained their non-involvement.
Burleson, TX
Bethesda Road in Burleson, Texas, is primarily known as the location of an urban legend rather than documented historical events. The folklore claims a school bus collided with a train on these tracks, killing most of the children aboard. No historical records in Burleson verify this specific incident.
Caldwell, TX
Caldwell High School is a 4A public secondary institution located in Caldwell, Texas, part of Burleson County. The Caldwell Independent School District was established in 1923. The current high school building is relatively modern, constructed within the last thirty years, and serves grades 9-12 in the rural agricultural region.
Canyon, TX
The Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum is the largest history museum in Texas, located on the West Texas A&M University campus in Canyon. Its collection includes the World War I-era Red Cross horse-drawn ambulance wagon known locally as the Sarah Jane wagon, on display for decades and currently in storage.
Carrizo Springs, TX
The Dimmit County Courthouse in Carrizo Springs, Texas, is a layered structure: an 1884 Italianate building by J.C. Breeding and Sons, enclosed in 1926 by a Classical Revival remodel designed by Henry T. Phelps. The courthouse remains the seat of Dimmit County government and was restored under the Texas Historical Commission's courthouse preservation program.
Cason, TX
Slaton Cemetery, locally known as Blue Light Cemetery, is a small rural burial ground in Morris County, East Texas, near the community of Cason. The cemetery has a longstanding regional reputation for a blue floating light reported at night among the graves.
Colorado City, TX
The Baker Hotel, originally called the Colorado Hotel, opened on March 12, 1927, at a cost of $225,000. The structure represents the architectural ambitions of the 1920s, designed as a luxury hotel with five stories. The building operated until 1970, when it ceased accepting guests and began its long decline into abandonment.
Combes, TX
Orphanage Road takes its name from a small orphanage that operated near Combes, Texas, in northern Cameron County after World War I. Regional accounts describe an orphanage assigned to care for Black children of the Rio Grande Valley during a period of social isolation following the Civil War. A small cemetery survives in a grove of trees off U.S. 77 near the road's exit.
Copper Canyon, TX
Old Alton Bridge is a historic iron truss bridge built in 1884 by the King Iron Bridge Manufacturing Company to carry traffic over Hickory Creek between what are now Denton and Copper Canyon, Texas. It served vehicle traffic until 2001, when a modern parallel bridge replaced it; the old bridge is now a pedestrian crossing. Locally it is known as 'Goatman's Bridge,' a nickname rooted in a Jim Crow-era lynching legend. The bridge is recognized as a Denton County historic landmark.
Corsicana, TX
The Navarro County Courthouse in Corsicana, Texas was completed in 1905, designed by architect James E. Flanders in the Beaux Arts style. The building serves as the active seat of Navarro County government. Local lore connects a political shooting on the courthouse steps — the County Sheriff allegedly killing the District Clerk over a political dispute — to the footsteps subsequently reported descending from the upper floors.
Crosby, TX
Black Hope was a small 19th- and early-20th-century cemetery for African Americans, many of them former slaves, near Crosby in Harris County, Texas. As many as 60 people were interred in unmarked pauper's graves, with the last burial recorded in 1939. In the early 1980s a developer built the Newport subdivision over the site without disclosing the burials, and homes went up on top of the graves.
Crosbyton, TX
The Crosby County Courthouse in Crosbyton, Texas was completed in late 1914, designed by Fort Worth architect M. L. Waller in the Neo-Classical style. It is the third courthouse to serve Crosby County, following county seats at Estacado and Emma, and was built after Crosbyton won an election to become the new county seat in conjunction with the arrival of the Crosbyton-South Plains Railroad.
Edinburg, TX
This corner house at 18th Street and Shunior in Edinburg has served as a residential rental for decades. Its primary distinction lies not in architectural heritage or documented historical events, but in a persistent pattern of tenant departures.
Fort Bliss, TX
Fort Bliss is an active United States Army installation in El Paso, Texas, established in 1849. Spanning over 1.1 million acres across Texas and New Mexico, it is one of the largest Army posts in the country. The 1st Armored Division and Fort Bliss Museum on post traces the installation's history from its frontier-era origins through World War II, the Cold War, and the present.
Fort Sam Houston, TX
Building 1000 at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio housed the original Brooke Army Medical Center from 1937 through 1996. After patients transferred to the new BAMC facility on April 13, 1996, the historic hospital sat empty for several years before becoming the headquarters of U.S. Army South.
Fredericksburg, TX
The National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas — formerly the Admiral Nimitz Museum — occupies the site of the historic Nimitz Hotel, where Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet during World War II, was born and raised. It is the only museum in the United States dedicated exclusively to WWII Pacific theater history.
Graford, TX
Camp Constantine sits on the shores of Possum Kingdom Lake in Palo Pinto County, Texas, occupying 385 acres with six miles of waterfront. The region was settled in the mid-1850s by pioneering cattlemen including Oliver Loving, Charles Goodnight, and Reuben Vaughn. Possum Kingdom Lake was impounded by the Morris Sheppard Dam (completed 1941), becoming the first water supply reservoir in the Brazos River basin.
Grand Prairie, TX
Estes Cemetery was established in 1857 when James Estes set aside one acre of his Tarrant County land for the burial of his wife Sarah, who died on April 16, 1857. The cemetery is a documented pioneer family burial ground designated a Grand Prairie Significant Landmark, with over 140 burials from fifty known families.
Grapevine, TX
Grapevine Lake is a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reservoir on Denton Creek, a tributary of the Trinity River, in northeast Tarrant County, Texas. Construction of the dam began in January 1948; impoundment of water began on July 3, 1952. The lake serves as a flood-control and water-supply reservoir for the Dallas-Fort Worth region.
Hillsboro, TX
The Tarlton House at 211 N Pleasant Street in Hillsboro, Texas was built in 1895 by prominent local attorney Green Duke Tarlton for his growing family. The 7,000-square-foot, three-story Queen Anne Victorian is the largest historic home in Hillsboro and features seven coal-burning fireplaces rimmed in imported Italian tile and a paneled two-story entry staircase carved from imported European wood. The house now operates as a seven-room bed and breakfast.
Huntsville, TX
Martha Chapel Cemetery in Walker County, Texas, is the surviving burial ground of an 1830s Methodist settlement established by Reverend Littleton Fowler. The cemetery takes its name from Martha Palmer, the wife of a church trustee, who was buried behind the chapel in 1854. The Texas Historical Commission placed a marker at the site in 1990.
Hurst, TX
The Belaire Theatre opened April 8, 1966 at the Belaire Plaza shopping center in Hurst, Texas as one of the first new Interstate Theatre cinemas in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in nearly two decades. It was twinned in 1976, expanded to four screens in 1987, and closed as a movie theater in 2000. From 2005 through March 2024, the space housed the Artisan Center Theatre, which presented family-friendly live theater in the round.
Hutto, TX
Jake's Hill Bridge spans Brushy Creek on County Road 137 at the Williamson-Travis County line between Hutto and Pflugerville. It is named after Nelf Jacobsen, an early 1900s Hutto-area resident. The road and bridge have carried the Jacobsen family name through generations of local lore. A documented 1950s car crash in which three teenagers died at the bridge anchors a real tragedy to the site.
Katy, TX
Magnolia Cemetery is Katy's founding burial ground, established around 1900, containing headstones of the town's founding families and Civil War soldiers. Barbara A. Snyder (born December 27, 1834 in Pennsylvania; died November 7, 1911 in Houston) was a German immigrant who settled in the Katy area and is buried here beneath a distinctive granite sphere.
Lampasas, TX
Lampasas grew up around its sulphur and mineral springs along Sulphur Creek, which made it a noted nineteenth-century health resort in Central Texas. One of the town's springs is the setting for 'The Spook of Sulphur Springs,' a ghost legend formally recorded by folklorist Haldeen Braddy in the Journal of American Folklore in 1946.
Lockhart, TX
The Caldwell County Jail at 315 East Market Street in Lockhart was constructed in 1908 to serve as the county's fourth detention facility, replacing earlier log and frame jails dating to 1855. The five-story Norman castellated structure held detainees until 1983, when a new facility replaced it. The Caldwell County Historical Commission took ownership in 1986 and operates it as a public museum.
Lufkin, TX
Largent Cemetery in Angelina County's Bethlehem Community has been in active use since at least 1862. William J. Largent, born 1800, is the earliest documented burial, having died August 18, 1862, followed by his wife Martha in November 1865. Adjoining land was formally deeded to the cemetery by G.W. Dunn and W.E. Dunn in 1916. The cemetery spans approximately 4 acres.
Luling, TX
Edgar B. Davis Memorial Hospital was built in 1966 in Luling, Texas on the site of one of philanthropist Edgar Byram Davis's former homes. Davis (1873-1951), a shoe-industry and rubber-plantation investor turned Texas oilman, donated at least $5 million to charity in his lifetime. His gravesite remains on the hospital grounds. The hospital is now Ascension Seton Edgar B. Davis, a 24-bed critical access facility.
Maxdale, TX
Maxdale Cemetery, established in the 1860s in Bell County south of Killeen, is one of the older pioneer burial grounds in Central Texas. The earliest documented grave belongs to Louisa Marlar, who died in 1867 at age 18. The cemetery holds Civil War veterans alongside veterans of World Wars I and II and the Korean War, reflecting the community's military generations.
Mesquite, TX
The Motley family migrated from Kentucky to Texas in 1856, acquiring thousands of acres in what is now Mesquite and Dallas County. Their family cemetery, established in 1863, now sits on the grounds of Dallas College Eastfield Campus and was designated a Texas Historical Commission landmark in 1976.
Nacogdoches, TX
Stephen F. Austin State University was established in 1923 in Nacogdoches, Texas, named for the principal Anglo-American empresario of early Texas settlement. The campus has accumulated several long-running pieces of campus folklore tied to residence halls, the auditorium, and the theater building over its century of operation.
New Braunfels, TX
The Faust Hotel opened in 1929 as the Travelers Hotel, built by businessman Walter Faust in New Braunfels's downtown German-heritage district. It was renamed the Faust Hotel after Walter's death in 1933. The four-story brick boutique reopened in spring 2026 after renovations reduced the room count from 64 to 45 and added new dining concepts.
North Richland Hills, TX
Sam Bass was a Texas outlaw who arrived in Denton County in the fall of 1870 and became notorious for robbing Union Pacific trains and, in 1878, staging four train robberies within 25 miles of Dallas. His gang operated throughout North Texas. Bass died on July 21, 1878, after being shot in a failed bank robbery in Round Rock. The North Richland Hills area falls within the North Texas territory his gang frequented.
Oakalla, TX
The Ozone is a local name for a winding section of RR 963 west of Oakalla, a small community in Burnet County in the Texas Hill Country. The road mirrors Rocky Creek and has a long-standing reputation as a haunted drive, tied to road fatalities and lore about a school-bus crash.
Pflugerville, TX
Cinemark Tinseltown 20 in Pflugerville, Texas opened on December 19, 1997, and has operated as a 20-screen multiplex ever since. The theater serves the Pflugerville community and north Austin suburbs. It has since been rebranded as Cinemark Pflugerville 20 and XD.
Plainview, TX
The Old Hilton Hotel in Plainview, Texas opened on July 3, 1929 — the sixth hotel built by Conrad Hilton, with 125 rooms, a ballroom, and private dining rooms. It left the Hilton chain in 1946, closed in 1983, and sat abandoned for more than thirty years. In 2020 it reopened as Conrad Lofts, a 29-unit affordable housing development.
Port Aransas, TX
The Tarpon Inn was built on Mustang Island in 1886 by boat pilot and assistant lighthouse keeper Frank Stephenson, using surplus lumber from a Civil War barracks. The original structure burned in 1900, the second was destroyed by the 1919 hurricane, and the current 1925 reconstruction was engineered with twenty-foot piling-reinforced corners. The Tarpon Inn was added to the National Register of Historic Places in September 1979.
Port Neches, TX
Sarah Jane Road is a low marsh road in Port Neches, in Jefferson County's industrial Golden Triangle. It is the setting of one of Southeast Texas's most retold ghost legends, but the name actually honors Sarah Jane Sweeney Block, a real local woman who lived to age 99.
Richmond, TX
The Old Fort Bend County Jail at 600 Preston Street in Richmond, Texas was completed in 1897 as the third county jail. The Romanesque Revival building, designed for both incarceration and the sheriff's family residence, served until 1955 and was renovated in 1996 to house the Richmond Police Department. A Texas Historical Commission marker was installed in 1985.
Roby, TX
Roby has served as the county seat of Fisher County, Texas, since the 1880s, and the county's first stone jail was built in 1892. A brick jail replaced the original stone structure in 1926, then served as the primary detention facility until 2016, when a new modern jail opened. The 1926 brick jailhouse was subsequently designated a historic landmark and remains part of the active Fisher County Sheriff's Office complex.
Roma, TX
In the early 1950s, a vehicle traveling on old Highway 83 approximately seven miles north of Roma, Texas struck a concrete guardrail during a severe thunderstorm, plunging into the swollen La Minita Creek. The driver pulled his unconscious wife from the water but could not reach his eight-year-old daughter, who was not recovered. The creek flows into the Rio Grande River.
San Elizario, TX
The Adobe Horseshoe occupies a restored adobe structure in San Elizario, a settlement with territorial roots dating to the 16th century. San Elizario served as a county seat and witnessed the 1877 Salt War—a violent dispute over salt deposit rights that claimed several lives. The structure itself likely dates to the 19th century.
San Marcos, TX
The Pike House, originally Fisher Hall, was constructed in 1903 as a boy's dormitory for Coronal Institute in San Marcos, Texas. The building served multiple functions over its 104-year existence: dormitory, WWI barracks, Military Academy, hospital, Baptist Academy dorm, and finally a Phi Kappa Alpha fraternity house. In 2007, the building was destroyed by arson and later demolished.
San Patricio, TX
Old San Patricio is the original site of San Patricio de Hibernia, an Irish Catholic colony founded in 1829 under Mexican empresarios James McGloin and John McMullen. The former county courthouse here was the site of the 1863 hanging of Josepha Chipita Rodriguez, recognized by Texas as the only woman legally executed in the state. A 2010 historical marker stands at the site.
Sanger, TX
Trail Dust Steakhouse has operated in Sanger, Texas, since 1973. Now operating as Parker Bros. Trail Dust Steakhouse at 1200 S Stemmons Street, the restaurant is known for fresh-cut daily steaks, live music, and a signature tradition of cutting the ties of business-attired customers. The Sanger location is one of multiple Texas Trail Dust operations.
Saratoga, TX
Bragg Road is a historic dirt road in the Big Thicket forest of Southeast Texas, running north-south from near Saratoga to the ghost town of Bragg Station. The road follows the path of a former railroad line operated by the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway from 1902 until the rails were removed in 1934.
Scottsville, TX
Scottsville Cemetery, about four miles east of Marshall in Harrison County, is regarded as one of the oldest and most beautiful private cemeteries in Texas. It is associated with the town's founding Scott family and is known for its 1904 Youree Chapel and a famous weeping-angel monument.
Seabrook, TX
The Scott Mansion, built in 1910 by Southern Pacific Railroad executive William Scott on Galveston Bay in Seabrook, was described by the Texas Historical Commission as the most distinctive mission-style residence in Texas. The three-story concrete house featured six bedrooms, six bathrooms, and multiple screened sleeping porches. The San Jacinto Girl Scouts Council purchased the property in 1958 and demolished the mansion in 1992, establishing Camp Casa Mare as a youth facility.
Spring, TX
Blue Light Cemetery in Spring, Texas, is a historic burial ground with roots extending to the 19th century. The cemetery's distinctive name derives from unexplained luminous phenomena reported by visitors over decades. The location has accumulated a reputation as one of Texas's paranormally active cemeteries.
Sweetwater, TX
Mulberry Manor is the historic Trammell House, a Mission Revival-Prairie School residence built between 1911 and 1913 by rancher, banker, and railroad promoter Thomas Trammell in Sweetwater, Texas. The home served as the city's only hospital from 1923 to 1936 before returning to residential use, and was purchased and restored in 2018 to operate as a bed and breakfast and event venue.
Victoria, TX
Hopkins Park is a public park operated by the City of Victoria, Texas. The park features a playground, BBQ pit, pavilion, restrooms, and tables.
Waco, TX
Cameron Park, a 416-acre urban park, was dedicated May 27, 1910, in memory of lumber baron William Cameron. Flora B. Cameron donated 125 acres to Waco in his honor, with subsequent additions in 1917 and 1920 extending the park from Proctor Springs along the Brazos and Bosque Rivers to Lover's Leap. The park remains one of Texas's largest municipal parks and includes the 52-acre Cameron Park Zoo.
Wichita Falls, TX
Flora Charlotte Kemp was born in 1890, the daughter of Joseph Alexander Kemp — a prominent Wichita Falls businessman and the brother-in-law of Frank Kell. She died in 1910 at age twenty while visiting Detroit, Michigan with her family. The cause was typhoid fever. Her remains were returned to Wichita Falls for burial at Riverside Cemetery, where her family erected a marble statue of a young girl descending stairs, inscribed 'Little Sister.'