1886 Romanesque Cattle Baron's Hotel in Downtown Austin
604 Brazos Street, Austin, TX 78701
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$$
Standard room rates typically $300-500 per night; suite rates higher. Restaurant and bar open to non-guests.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Restored 1886 hotel with elevators, accessible main floors
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1886 · Romanesque Revival Architecture · Historic Hotels of America · Cattle Baron Era · Austin's Oldest Operating Hotel
Colonel Jesse Lincoln Driskill, born in Tennessee in 1824, made his fortune in the Texas cattle trade, supplying beef to the Confederate Army during the Civil War and to the Texas Rangers thereafter. By the 1880s, with the Texas range cattle industry near its peak, Driskill commissioned the construction of a flagship hotel for the rapidly growing state capital of Austin. The hotel opened on December 20, 1886, a four-story Romanesque Revival building at the corner of Sixth and Brazos.
The Driskill was acclaimed as one of the most luxurious hotels in the South. The opening included a grand ball attended by Texas political and business leaders. The hotel's success, however, did not protect Driskill from external shocks: the brutal winter of 1886-1887 and severe Texas drought devastated his cattle holdings, and he was forced to sell the hotel in 1888. He died in 1890.
The Driskill changed ownership multiple times through the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It hosted nearly every Texas governor's inaugural ball and remains the unofficial center of Texas political society in Austin. Lyndon B. Johnson conducted significant courtship of Lady Bird Taylor at the hotel in 1934 and used the Driskill repeatedly during his political career.
The hotel is a member of Historic Hotels of America. The current ownership preserves period detailing throughout the lobby, bar, and main public spaces. The Driskill is one of the most-documented haunted hotels in the American Southwest, and the front desk maintains a written log of staff and guest paranormal encounters that reaches back decades.
Sources
The Driskill's ghost lore divides into several recurring strands. Colonel Jesse Driskill himself is described as the most-encountered presence; staff and guests have reported the smell of cigar smoke in the lobby and on the upper floors for decades, despite the hotel becoming smoke-free years ago. A staff member who attempted to find the source of the smoke is said to have heard a voice behind him asking for a match and turned to find no one present. The Colonel was famously fond of his cigars in life.
A young girl identified in hotel tradition as Samantha Houston is said to have fallen down the grand staircase and died around the turn of the twentieth century. Historians have not been able to definitively corroborate the specific identity, but accounts of children's laughter and the sound of a ball bouncing on the staircase steps are persistent in the hotel's guest log.
The bridal suite is associated with the story of a woman jilted at the altar who took her own life in the hotel afterward. Guests have reported a figure in a wedding dress in the hallway outside the suite.
Additional accounts cluster on the fifth floor, where multiple rooms have generated reports of doors opening on their own, items moved overnight, and the impression of being watched. The hotel front desk maintains a written log of these accounts and treats them with the cultivated attention of a property that has long understood its haunted reputation as part of its identity.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Stay overnight at the Driskill, Austin's oldest operating hotel. The fifth-floor rooms and the bridal suite are most commonly associated with reported activity. Hotel staff maintain a written log of guest encounters.
Drink or dine at the hotel's signature bar and restaurant. The lobby and Driskill Bar are publicly accessible and are the most commonly cited locations for reports of Colonel Driskill's cigar smoke.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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.
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.
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.