Abilene's 1909 Prairie-Style hotel — named for a colonel's daughter — where footsteps and voices persist on floors no one has slept on in fifty years.
102 Cypress St, Abilene, TX 79601
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Adults $8; Children 4–17, Seniors, Students, Retired Military $5; Children under 3 free. Free Thursday evenings 5–8 PM.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Elevator-served historic building; mostly flat indoor gallery space
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1909 · Prairie-Style Architecture · Railroad Era · West Texas Cultural Institution · National Register of Historic Places
Colonel W.L. Beckham of Greenville, Texas built the Grace Hotel in 1909 at the corner of Cypress Street and North First Street, naming it for his daughter. At the time of its construction, the T&P Railroad Depot stood directly across the street, and the Grace became the default destination for travelers arriving in West Texas. It operated as the primary hotel between Fort Worth and El Paso.
The original Prairie-Style structure comprised three stories. A fourth floor was added in 1924, along with a rooftop dance floor and expanded kitchen. By 1946 the hotel had changed hands and was operating as the Drake Hotel. Passenger rail service declined steadily through the postwar decades, and the building ceased hotel operations in 1973.
By the 1980s the structure had deteriorated significantly. The Abilene Preservation League and the Abilene Fine Arts Museum formed a partnership to restore the building, which was placed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the renovation effort. The Museums of Abilene opened in the restored building in 1992; the institution was renamed The Grace Museum in 1998. Today it houses five art galleries, history exhibits covering the development of West Texas and the region's multicultural heritage, an education center, and the Spark children's gallery. Annual attendance runs approximately 60,000 visitors.
Sources
The Southwest Ghost Hunters Association conducted an investigation at the Grace Museum and documented unexplained activity that staff described as concentrated on the upper floors and in the basement. Visitors' accounts include doors opening and closing without apparent cause, footsteps echoing in empty hallways, and voices — described specifically as women's voices — audible in corridors when no one is present.
The building's hotel years provide the most obvious context: the Grace operated as a lodging for more than six decades, and the third and fourth floors in particular housed sleeping guests through the peak of the West Texas oil and railroad era. The rooftop ballroom, added in 1924, hosted dances during the hotel's most active period. Whether the reported sounds connect to specific events or individuals from the hotel's past is not documented by the museum itself.
Five floors of art and history in the restored 1909 Hotel Grace building — 55,000 square feet of galleries, permanent history exhibits tracing West Texas development, a children's interactive space called Spark, and the museum's research library. The third and fourth floors, ballroom, and basement are the floors with the most reported anomalous activity.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Cincinnati, OH
The Cincinnati Art Museum was founded in 1881 and opened to the public in its current Eden Park building on May 17, 1886. It is one of the oldest art museums in the United States and houses an encyclopedic collection spanning 6,000 years of art history. Reuben Springer led the founding fundraising; the building has been expanded repeatedly into the 21st century.
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.
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.