The Original Austin Ghost Tours
This is an article that I’m posting as a throwback from the 1974 a magazine that was local to Austin called Free and Easy. It was a fun 1970s era printing of local stories.
”Yet another famous ghost was observed by only one woman.
Though the story lacked the authenticity awarded by multiple sightings, it became a legend because it involved a dashing soldier and a sweet damsel, both romantic personages in earlier days.
The duo purportedly haunted the Raymond House, the first colonial style structure in town, which was built in 1853 in the 1000 block of West 6th Street. Colonel Raymond was a state treasurer and a man remembered by for his love of horses and the kindness with which he treated his slaves. Raymond and his wife lived in the house until their deaths. Neither their lives nor the lives of later residents provided good ghost story fodder, nonetheless, this one emerged.”
(In fact, in Austin’s early, early history, not only was the Raymond House the first, but it was the only boarding house for quite a while. It was actually at the same location as the old Telegraph Building at the corner of 4th and Congress Avenue today.)
”In 1923, a woman was passing the house at twilight and looked in the window.
At the top of the stairs appeared a young girl exquisitely dressed in rose colored ruffles. She slowly descended the staircase with one hand on her heart and the other on the banister. As she neared the floor, a dark Cape swished and a sword flashed in the moonlight. A man dressed in the uniform of a Union soldier embraced her and the words ”beloved” was whispered between them.
Thereafter, the woman observed the figure of an old man sitting on the steps and recognized him as the same Union soldier wizened by the years. While walking down the street days later, she saw the old man, this time in the flesh. She approached him and recounted her apparition, He remembered the occasion, a late night meeting he had with the girl before he left for war. After returning home, he could not find his lover, but, He said, ”She is here with me now she helps me wash my dishes and sweep my floors. She loves my books and I am happy.”
Long gone, Houghton House
Recently replaced by a parking garage, the old Houghton House at 12th and Guadalupe was a ghost watchers delight. The upper floors of the stately Victorian mansion were partitioned into apartments and several tenants reported visits by a timid ghost easily startled by loud noises. The most enduring account of the Spirit’s origin is the tale of a woman and her adulterous husband who lived in the house long ago. The wife caught her husband in an untoward situation with a female neighbor. She killed them both, then returned home and committed suicide. The woman apparently took her life in the tower in the corner of the house. A resident who rented the tower in 1972 claims there was an area in the middle of the room that was always cool, call it chilling, no matter what the weather this. Phenomena is quite common in so called haunted houses
Houghton House’s capitulation to progress was particularly sad. It was not only a grand artifact of the 19th century Austin, but also the home was one of our town’s more active ghosts, who we must presume now flirts fitfully among parked cars seeking the companionship of a snoozing drunk.”
