
The Driskill Hotel | Austin’s Famed Haunted Hotel
Posted: 01.31.2025 | Updated: 01.31.2025
The ominous stare of Colonel Jesse Driskill is a permanent fixture near the heart of contemporary Downtown Austin. Erected atop the peaks of The Driskill Hotel, his bust serves as a reminder of who brought the renowned property to Texas’ capital. However, the stationary statue is unlike a New York City gargoyle. Rather, it channels the incorporeal form of the hotel’s namesake and proprietor.
The Romanesque Revival building is a unique facet of Austin’s history. As if transplanted from another age, the 19th-century hotel retained not only its unique antique charm but also the souls of many who once walked its halls.
As one of the city’s most notable properties, it’s no surprise when city sightseeing tours roll up to hear about its extensive history. While those tours may explore the hotel’s physical history, it’s an Austin ghost tour that would dig deeper into its past.
Is The Driskill Hotel Haunted?
Many haunted hotels vie for the title of Texas’ MOST haunted hotel: The legends of the Emily Morgan Hotel in San Antonio or the Mineral Wells’ gloomy Baker Hotel, Bonnie and Clyde’s favorite stopover in Fort Worth.
However, a case can be made for The Driskill and its fettered souls. From the mirror-lined Maximilian Room to the tragedy of Room 525, The Driskill Hotel houses a bounty of spirits, all lingering in our realm to share their story. In the case of ‘ole Colonel Driskill himself, it’s more about watching over his historic property.
Quick Facts:
- The Driskill Hotel opened its doors in 1886.
- President Lyndon B. Johnson’s legacy is tied to the Driskill.
- One former owner, M. B. Curtis, was tried and acquitted for murder.
- The hotel’s namesake owner managed it for only a short period.
The Haunts of The Driskill Hotel
The Driskill’s history is long and storied, spanning many owners and a great number of guests. While many came and went, some became trapped within the Texas relic. The most understandable of them is the hotel’s namesake owner: ‘ole Colonel Jesse Driskill.
Not one to actively disturb his guests, Driskill keeps to himself as he watches over the historic property. While alive, his ownership was surprisingly brief. His afterlife is spent making up for lost time.
Driskill isn’t the only legendary character with a direct tie to the hotel. Though none of the other owners seem to have stuck around beyond their time, other figures with unique histories connected to the Driskill found an eternal home.
The spirits of President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird, are frequent visitors, as is the mysterious wife of a Mexican emperor.
While you’ll be watching mirrors throughout the hotel to try and spot those ghosts, there’s a painting on the fifth floor that may be bound to the tragic spirit of a young girl. Pass it, and expect to see the expression on the subject’s face distort.
The Driskill’s Host Ghost

If you ever walk the halls of this old Austin hotel and catch the faint scent of cigar smoke, know that you’ve just met the property’s namesake. There’s no need to tense up or be afraid. He’s merely checking in on your stay. It is, after all, his duty as The Driskill Hotel’s first owner.
Though his apparition may have sowed his legacy as the hotel’s most commonly spotted spirit, there’s more to the man than his ethereal figure. If you’ll be running into him from time to time, it’s at least worth getting to know a bit about his living history.
Despite his title, Colonel Driskill wasn’t actually a military man. Far from it, in fact.
The Life and Death of Colonel Driskill
Born on November 4, 1824, in Tennessee, Driskill’s lineage ties back to Ireland. The first of the O’Driscoll bloodline arrived in North America in 1775. Jesse Driskill made his own way, dropping the Irish spelling of his surname for something Americanized.
By 1847, he had moved to Barry, Missouri, and met his future wife, Nancy Elizabeth Jane Day. Within four years, the couple made a home in Bastrop, Texas, before moving to San Antonio. It was here that he was set on a path to make a name for himself. First, though, he’d face his greatest hurdle.
Driskill stumbled into the lucrative cattle industry at the onset of the Civil War. Selling beef to the Confederates, the Tennessee native secured enough money to live comfortably. Unfortunately, with the collapse of the Confederacy, every Confederate dollar he was paid completely lost its value.
With only his title — bestowed upon him by Confederates for his support — Driskill was forced to rebuild from the ground up. Rebuild, he did, eventually putting his blood, sweat, and literal soul into what would slowly become an Austin staple.
Despite having lost his physical tie to the Driskill before his passing, the Colonel remains on the property over a century later. If it’s not the aroma of his cigars wafting through the halls, then guests have spotted the former owner lingering at the windows overlooking the corner balconies.
Make a Toast to ‘Samantha’s Ghost’
While Driskill remains the hotel’s foremost spirit, other spectral forms have joined him over time.
Very early on in the hotel’s operational years, U.S. Senator Temple Lea Houston was staying with his four-year-old daughter, Samantha.
While the senator eventually checked out, his poor young lass never did. It’s said that Samantha was playing in the halls of the Driskill, chasing a ball.
Her joy was cut short when the ball made its way to the staircase. Samantha followed the bouncing toy, her deadly descent leaving her broken and lifeless at the bottom step.
Here’s where the tale of Samantha gets a little muddied. Jesse Driskill isn’t the only one to have a portrait hung in the hotel. On the hotel’s fifth floor, guests pass a painting titled “Love Letters.” In it, a young girl clings to a bouquet of flowers and a letter.
The young girl was the perfect candidate for Samantha, so much so that guests believed the spirit of Houston’s daughter inhabited the portrait of herself. Changing facial expressions is just one oddity alleged of the painted girl.
However, the painting isn’t actually of Samantha. It’s a modern recreation of a work by Charles Trevor Garland, who would have no purpose in painting the Houston girl. That does leave a question unanswered, though.
If Samantha’s ghost is not manipulating the painting or leaving guests feeling queasy just at the sight of it, then what menace has taken up residency within the artwork?
Today, the Driskill’s bar serves a signature “Samantha’s Ghost” beverage to honor the young spirit.
What Happened in Room 525?
Every hotel has that room. At the Stanley, it’s room 217. At The Driskill Hotel, it’s room 525. While some of the Colonel’s former hotel guests merely love the property, some, like Samantha, had their lives ripped away on its sprawling grounds. Often, that binds a spirit to a location, which helps explain the grizzly haunt of room 525.

Love is a powerful thing. When it goes awry, it can break an individual’s spirit. Such is the case of a young bride who lived out her final moments in this fifth-floor room.
The pain of rejection proved too much for her. The tale of the jilted bride is nothing new to ghostly lore around the world. However, this is no mere myth shared by teenagers.
The young woman hailed from Houston and had been recently left by her fiancee. As Driskill tells it, in a final act of revenge, she stole his credit card and went on a costly ($10,000) shopping spree.
Maybe, like the Egyptians, she thought she could take her new purchases with her. That evening, she held a pillow to her stomach, pressed a gun to the pillow, and pulled the trigger.
Her apparition is one of Driskill’s more commonly spotted haunts. Her hands are usually filled with shopping treasures or a gun.
…Or Was It Room 427?
Murders and suicides are rarely revealed by a hotel when they occur. The rarity that slips out becomes a piece of that property’s lore, like the bride of room 525.
With few or no physical records to help preserve the facts of these incidents, it’s not uncommon for details to become askew. That could be why, per the hotel’s own recount of its history, the girl killed herself in room 427.

Perhaps, though, it’s not a case of confused information. Rather, a case of mistaken identity and the female spirit tied to room 525 is a different, forgotten tragedy embedded in the Driskill’s history.
Other stories suggest a woman killed herself in room 429. Her sobs are still heard today, even when the floor is otherwise empty.
Carlotta Haunts The Driskill Hotel
Under Edward Seeling’s ownership, the Driskill underwent two significant transformations. The first was the addition of a 60-suite annex building that still stands today.
The other was the conversion of the Men’s Parlor and Smoking Room into the Maximilian Room. The room’s most significant feature was (and still is) its eight Austrian gold-framed mirrors lining the room, all former property of Carlotta.
How and why they arrived in Texas remains unknown. They were simply found in an auction in San Antonio.
Seeling never could have expected the presence that accompanied the mirrors. The Maximilian Room is believed to house Carlotta’s ghost. A gentle touch on the shoulder is her calling card.
Some guests even claim to have seen her spirit trapped within the infinity mirror effect. Why she remained tied to the mirrors is a mystery she took to the grave. Though maybe one day, she’ll finally find a guest to share that tale.
The Driskill’s Presidential Ghost
Carlotta isn’t the only notable figure to have her legacy anchored to the Driskill. Though President Lyndon B. Johnson has no shortage of sites, memorials, and buildings dedicated to him, Austin’s premium hotel held a special place in his life.
Years before he watched the results of his 1948 Senate race or his 1964 Presidential re-election, he spent a morning in 1934 courting a darling woman named Lady Bird.
Bird would, of course, later become Lady Bird Johnson. The Driskill set the stage for an eternal love that some believe is still as strong today as it was when the former president passed away in 1973.
The pair are thought to still frequent the hotel today. Guests claim they’ve spotted the loving pair in mirrors around the hotel, most notably near the dining room where they shared their first breakfast together.
President Johnson’s connection with the hotel is preserved today in the Governor’s Suite, where he formerly established a base of operations for the White House Press Corps.
Who Are Mrs. Bridge and Peter Lawless?

During their stay, guests can expect to encounter Samantha, the bride, or Mr. Driskill. Their stories are told and retold and have become a piece of the hotel’s darker history. However, there are still lesser-known haunts that have made a permanent home on the Austin property.
One specter, known only as Mrs. Bridge, is said to have once worked at the hotel. A part of the Driskill during the early 1990s while alive, it seems she still feels some connection to the building today.
Accounts put Mrs. Bridge in a Victorian dress, often the hotel’s flower arrangements. Her presence is marked by a noticeable aroma of fresh roses when she’s not visible.
Like Mrs. Bridge, Peter Lawless, a ticket agent for the Great Northern Railroad, must have felt a strong connection to the Driskill. After all, he did move in after his wife died around the 1880s. After he died in 1916, his incorporeal form started to appear in the elevators as if on his way to work. Mr. Lawless tends to have a fascination with the housekeeping staff, as his ghostly form has been caught watching them tend to rooms.
History of The Driskill Hotel
The Driskill is more than accommodations for the living and the dead. It’s a piece of Austin history with quite an interesting backstory.
Left penniless in the Civil War’s wake, Driskill returned to cattle trading after securing a new herd that he ferried to northern territories. While he returned to success, a brief slump in 1871 drove him and his family to Austin. Before long, the cattle herder would establish his true legacy.
In 1885, he pursued his vision of a property bearing his name. For $7,500, he purchased a city block in Austin and, upon it, constructed and opened The Driskill Hotel.
The ornate property stood proud on otherwise fairly empty streets, its balconied canted corners peering out over emptier roadways. Magnificent Romanesque Revival peaks cast an imposing shadow along what was then Pecan and Brazos. It was difficult to deny the Driskill’s allure.
Hardships Hit The Driskill Hotel
Though Austin is a major city with a bustling population today, its 19th-century counterpart was less so. Driskill overestimated the city’s need for an opulent hotel that rivaled New York’s finest, and it didn’t take long for financial troubles to plague the property.
At first, the future for The Driskill Hotel seemed bright. Its proprietor was well-established in a fruitful industry, and the property had just hosted Governor Sul Ross to celebrate his election.
The inaugural ball wouldn’t be the last time a politician graced the hotel, either. However, it would be the last time Colonel Driskill would be there to witness it.
Already struggling to draw in a crowd and find its place in Austin’s persistent old west facade, the Driskill was forced to close when its key staff was pilfered by the Galveston’s Beach Hotel.
Though Driskill tried his luck again with new management, droughts, and cold weather diminished his cattle business.
Legend has it that Driskill’s misfortune had less to do with location and more to do with poor choices. It’s often said that he lost all of his money in a game of poker.
Unfortunately, the truth died with Driskill in 1890 when he suffered a stroke. All that’s known is, before his passing, the hotelier sold the property to his brother-in-law, James “Doc” Day.
Driskill’s Second Wind
Under “Doc” Day’s ownership — and with the ethereal Driskill now tied eternally to his prized property — the Austin hotel seemed to get a second wind.
Day used the lavished space to host events, inviting everyone from local government officials to international VIPs. When the new state capitol building was completed in 1888, the Driskill housed notable guests.
Jesse Driskill could only watch from his spectral prison as his dream proved a success under another’s care. His prominence in the hotel’s history was at least recognized in 1890 when a life-sized portrait of the Colonel was installed over the lobby.
When Day felt his time at the Driskill was over, he took a beneficial offer from actor M. B. Curtis. For $14,000, a ranch in California, and a vineyard, Curtis purchased the property, and Day went on his way.
Within a year, the hotel sold for $76,000 at auction to New York investors, who then turned around and resold it back to its mortgage holders for $1,000 less.
Before being passed around among large corporate owners throughout the late 20th century, cattle baron Major George Littlefield purchased the hotel for $106,000. Unlike its previous owners, Littlefield vowed to do what Driskill could not.
He promised never to close the property. For eight years, he upheld his vow. Littlefield even sank $60,000 into renovations and added a bank to the lobby.
The improvements — which included new bathrooms, electric lighting, and fans — seemed promising.
However, in 1903, the cattle tycoon sold the hotel for a $25,000 loss. The buyer, Edward Seeling, had a big vision for the Driskill. As its longest owner as of his purchase, he was the most influential in how it would look for nearly a century.
The Many Faces of the Historic Driskill
As the ghosts of The Driskill Hotel accumulated, changes were occurring throughout the Austin property. In 1969, Seeling started to lose his grip on the hotel.
His vision of a 19-story tower led to what was meant to be a temporary closure. When plans for the tower fell through, though, the fate of the Driskill seemed uncertain.
Despite its earlier stumbles, the Driskill became an important part of the community. So, in 1970, as demolition loomed, members of a Save-the-Driskill effort raised over $700,000 to keep the property standing. The events once again started, first with a re-opening gala that welcomed over 1,200 guests.
Come 1980, the Driskill had seen its last private owner. From there, companies like Braniff International and CapStar secured ownership.
Renovations in the 80s and early 90s changed parts of the hotel, diluting some of its historic charm. Then, in 1995, Great American Life Insurance purchased the establishment. Its first order of business? Return it to its original glory.
It may have taken four years, but to the delight of Colonel Driskill, Carlotta, and the Johnsons, the Driskill was as they remembered it.
America’s Most Haunted
The Driskill Hotel lands itself among the nation’s most active haunted locations. Spirits and malevolent entities alike stake their claim to relics of the nation’s past, forever bound to locations like the Austin hotel.
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Sources:
- https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/driskill-hotel
- https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/driskill-jesse-lincoln
- https://www.historichotels.org/hotels-resorts/the-driskill/history.php
- https://moonmausoleum.com/uncovering-the-ghostly-legends-of-the-driskill-hotel-in-austin/
- https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/day-james-monroe
- https://txarchives.org/utcah/finding_aids/03881.xml
- https://eerielights.com/eerielightsblog/the-haunted-driskill-hotel
- https://texashillcountry.com/haunted-painting-historic-driskill-hotel/
- https://www.austinmonthly.com/driskill-hotels-haunted-history-fact-vs-fiction/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8v0mWOWEQ4&t=491s
- https://mysterioustrip.com/haunted-driskill-hotel-history/
- https://www.dreadcentral.com/cold-spots/5091/the-driskill-hotel/
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