Driskill Hotel
Colonel Jesse Driskill made his money in cattle, and he spent it the way cattlemen do -- big. In 1886, he opened a hotel on the corner of Sixth and Brazos streets in Austin, Texas, constructed from over six million pressed bricks and trimmed in white limestone, with Richardsonian arches so massive they were reputed to be the largest in Texas. Three limestone busts stare down from the facade: Driskill and his two sons, Bud and Tobe, their stone faces keeping permanent watch over a building their patriarch intended as nothing less than the finest hotel south of St. Louis. He went broke within a year of opening it. But the Driskill survived him, and survived everything else Austin has thrown at it in the nearly fourteen decades since.
Six Million Bricks and a Cattleman's Pride
Local architects J. N. Preston & Son designed the original four-story Romanesque Revival building, which opened with a grand celebration on December 20, 1886, featured in a special edition of the Austin Daily Statesman. The second floor held the main dining room and ballroom, separate parlors for men and women, a children's dining room, and bridal suites. On January 1, 1887, Governor Sul Ross held his inaugural ball in that ballroom, establishing a tradition that every Texas governor has followed since. In 1930, the El Paso architecture firm Trost & Trost added a 13-story annex, crowned with a rooftop bungalow that originally served as a private residence for superintendents of the Southern Pacific Railroad. That penthouse apartment -- with two bedrooms, private baths, a living room, and full kitchen -- later hosted Jack Dempsey, Bob Hope, and President Lyndon Johnson.
Where LBJ Fell in Love and Won Elections
The Driskill is inseparable from the political life of Texas, but no figure haunts its halls quite like Lyndon Baines Johnson. In 1934, the future president met Claudia Taylor -- the woman the world would know as Lady Bird -- for their first date in the Driskill dining room. The hotel became his campaign headquarters during his congressional career, particularly during the razor-thin 1948 Senate race that earned him the sardonic nickname Landslide Lyndon. On election night in 1964, Johnson watched the presidential returns from the Driskill's presidential suite, then descended to the ballroom to address his supporters after his landslide victory. The hotel's political gravity extended beyond Johnson. In 1908, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas met at the Driskill to debate the fate of the Alamo -- whether the legendary mission should be demolished or preserved. The preservationists won.
Death Sentences and Reprieves
The Driskill has nearly died more than once. By the early 1970s, the building had deteriorated so badly that the Austin American-Statesman ran an article declaring the hotel's fate sealed. A nonprofit called the Driskill Hotel Corporation raised $900,000 to save it from the wrecking ball, and Braniff Airways hosted a grand reopening celebration on February 10, 1973, with over a thousand guests and a parade of every Texas governor or their descendants dating back to 1886. Two decades later, the hotel needed rescue again. Great American Life Insurance purchased the Driskill in 1995 and embarked on a $30 million renovation to restore the building to its original appearance. The hotel closed for four years and reopened with a Millennium celebration on December 31, 1999. Under hotelier W.L. Stark's earlier stewardship, the former smoking room had been adorned with eight antique Austrian gold leaf-framed mirrors once owned by Emperor Maximilian and Empress Carlota of Mexico -- details that the restoration sought to preserve and honor.
Ghosts, Movie Stars, and SXSW
The Driskill wears its age with a certain atmospheric weight. Guests and staff have long reported unexplained encounters, including the story of a seven-year-old girl named Samantha, said to have died after falling down the Grand Staircase while chasing a ball. The hotel has been called the most haunted spot in Texas. But the Driskill is not stuck in the past. On September 11, 2001, the Secret Service relocated Jenna Bush, daughter of President George W. Bush, to the hotel in the wake of the terrorist attacks. And during the 2018 South by Southwest festival, actor Bill Murray and cellist Jan Vogler recited Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poem "Dog" from the front steps. The Driskill passed through Hyatt's hands starting in 2013 and was sold to Dallas-based Woodbine Development in May 2022 for $125 million -- a price that would have astonished Colonel Driskill, who lost his fortune building the place for a fraction of that.
From the Air
The Driskill Hotel is located at 30.268N, 97.742W at the corner of Sixth Street and Brazos Street in downtown Austin, Texas. The four-story Romanesque building with its 13-story annex tower sits within the Sixth Street Historic District, identifiable from the air by its position along the entertainment corridor. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (KAUS) is approximately 6 nm to the southeast. Best viewed at 2,000-4,000 feet AGL. The Texas State Capitol dome to the north and the Colorado River (Lady Bird Lake) to the south provide primary navigation references.