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Driskill Hotel
Austin, Texas
Colonel Jesse Driskill, a highly successful cattle baron completed construction on the Romanesque style Driskill hotel in 1886 at a cost of $400,000. Built with six million bricks and limestone, the Grand Hotel boasted sixty rooms and twelve corner rooms with attached baths. It also included steam heating, an electronic bell system and gas lighting. Because of the gas pipes that were running through the hotel, Driskill made it as fireproof as possible, by making the walls between the rooms eighteen inches thick and adding two layers of iron between each floor. Opening day was December 20th of the same year. Less than five months after the hotel opened its doors, Driskill was forced to close it down due to financial difficulties. The doors were reopened five months later under new management. This was the first of many changes Driskill would see before his death in 1890. The hotel changed hands a few more times until 1895 when it was purchased by George Littlefield who vowed that the hotel would never close again. After spending over $60,000 in renovations, added 28 rooms and established the American National Bank in the hotel. Littlefield sold the hotel in 1906. In 1930 the building was expanded with a thirteen story tower and private bathrooms were added to each of the sixty rooms. In 1952 the hotel was equipped with air conditioning. The hotel was threatened with demolition in 1969 but was saved when the Driskill Hotel Corporation raised $700,000. The Driskill reopened in 1973 and today is fully restored to what it used to be. Many people believe that after he died, Jesse Driskill returned to his hotel to stay forever. Many people believe that he is the one responsible for the smell of cigar smoke that appears out of no where and that he is the one playing with the bathroom lights in some of the rooms on the top level. Staff and customers have reported the sounds of a child laughing and a ball bouncing down the mezzanine staircase. The story behind this is that a four year old girl was playing with a ball at the top of the staircase and fell to the bottom where she died. A third entity is that of a woman who shot herself while staying in room 29. The woman was distraught because her fiancée called off their wedding. When she didn’t leave the room for three days the housekeeper went to check on her. She found her in a pool of blood in the bathtub. The woman is sometimes seen coming out of the elevator with an arm full of shopping bags. Mrs. Bridges, a former front desk clerk can be seen arranging flowers that aren’t there anymore. Peter J. Lawless, who lived in the hotel for thirty years, is often seen checking his packet watch in the elevator. The ghost of a man who used to entertain his lady friends on the third floor is said to haunt the third floor. Guests have reported having there face and arms touched by unseen hands and have also seen figures on their balconies or sitting in chairs in their rooms. Other reports include faucets and lights turning on and off by themselves, and objects moving on their own.
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