Is the Driskill Haunted?
Actually, relative to hotels in general the Driskill has known very little death.
So why is there so unexplainable phenomena? Are the many spirits that roam the halls, ballrooms and balconies of this hotel, perhaps captured in the flow of an underground spring? I believe the Driskill is so haunted because of all the life it has supported through time. Most of the people who worked at the Driskill did so for all of their lives, probably spending the majority of their lives within the Driskill walls. So the Driskill is haunted and not because of deaths, but because of life.
In January of 2010, Austin Ghost Tours founder and manager Jeanine Plumer and tour guide Monica were on a flight to Hollywood to be featured in the biography channels new show My Ghost Story ( we were featured 3 times) because of a photograph that a tour guest took in the Driskill lobby. In preparation for the show, we started reviewing all of the stories we knew and which spirits we could attach to which story. When we got to 19, we stopped and agreed to, if asked on the TV show about the Driskill Hotel, we would just tell the producers there’s a ”bunch of ghosts”.
We have since come to terms with the impossibility to say exactly how many spirits haunt the Driskill.
It would be like asking someone at the front desk how many people are in the building at that moment. Well, they might be able to estimate the number of staff and guests, but who is at the bar? Who is in the restaurant? Who is a tourist wandering by? All we can do is review the evidence. And listen to other people’s experiencing documenting as we go and finding commonalities in the stories.
History of the Driskill Hotel
Supporting urban renewal Col. Driskill had plans to transform the 6th Street corridor from a rough and shabby area of Austin into a respectful extension of Congress Avenue.
The current Capitol was under construction at this time as were six limestone buildings along Pecan Street. The University of Texas had two successful years of instruction under it’s belt and the student population was increasing. Clearly the city was destined for greatness therefore it would need a hotel that held the highest standards of the time. The Driskill Hotel would set the precedent for what Austin should aspire to become; a city of grandeur to suit its status as the Capitol of the great state of Texas.
Colonell Driskill was an entrepreneur who made his money after the Civil War by rounding up the huge numbers of wild Texas longhorns and herding them north to the railroads in Kansas where they were dispersed. Before the War nobody much liked the Texas Longhorns they were skinny, and ill tempered with long horns, but after the War, to a starving nation, they were looking pretty good.
With Col. Driskill’s unstoppable resolve to build the finest hotel west of the Mississippi and fueled by his vast fortune the cornerstone for Driskill was laid on July 4 1885.
The Driskill was for many years at the apex of Austin’s social scene. Inaugural balls, graduations, weddings and parties have all been celebrated in its ornate rooms. During Prohibition years, the Driskill supported the finest speakeasy Austin had to offer.
Who Haunts the Driskill Hotel?
NADIA
In the spring of 1991, Nadia, a young woman from Houston had her big day called off a few days before the wedding. Distraught, she tried unsuccessfully to take her own life at the Houston Hilton on the first night following the breakup with her with her fiancé. She then took her former fiancée’s sports car and drove it to Austin, Texas, and checked into the Driskill. The next day she went shopping and one of her purchases was a pistol. She returned to the Driskill, loaded it, put on the Do Not Disturb sign, and grabbed a pillow from the bed, facing herself in the bathroom mirror, she shot herself in the stomach. The sound was muffled by the pillow. The police report indicated that if the bullet had not killed her, the alcohol in her blood system would have.
The Senator’s Daughter
Guests of The Driskill frequently report a young female poltergeist darting along the Grand Staircase of the Mezzanine. According to local lore, this female apparition is a Senator’s Daughter.
It all began in 1887, when The Driskill was hosting a special function for that year’s Legislative Session. Since the Texas State Capitol was still under construction, the Senate opted to hold their session at The Driskill instead.
During the event, the Senator handed his daughter a ball to distract her while he handled business. With her ball in hand, the sweet girl skipped over to the staircase.
She was bouncing the ball up and down when it went sailing from her grasp. She tried to grab it, but only succeeded in tumbling down the steps herself.
Some believe the little girl died from a broken neck at the base of the stairs.
While her spirit is seen throughout the hotel, she’s most often spotted near a fifth-floor portrait of a young girl holding flowers. This young girl goes by the name of Samantha, leading paranormal enthusiasts to believe she’s the hotel’s young poltergeist.
While there’s no evidence to tie the spirit to the picture, paranormal disturbances repeatedly occur near the painting.
This friendly spirit is also known to play with children in their room or halls. When parents ask their child who they’re playing with, the response is almost always the same: “Samantha.”
Colonel Jesse Driskill
The hotel’s namesake, Colonel Driskill, is another resident poltergeist.
When Driskill owned the hotel, he was known for standing in the lobby to make small talk with the hotel’s guests. His lips were always billowing cigar smoke.
Even though the hotel is non-smoking, many claim to still catch the scent of cigars.
Could this be the specter of Colonel Driskill?
On one occasion, a security guard was working overtime when he caught the strong scent of a cigar. Leaning over the balcony to see if he could catch the culprit, he heard a male voice behind him say, “Got a match?”
He whipped around to find that he was utterly alone. Rumor has it that the security guard was so disturbed by the experience he quit.
The Ghost of Peter Lawless
Our next poltergeist takes the form of a full-bodied specter.
In the early 20th century, Peter Lawless worked as a ticket agent for the Great Northern Railroad. When his wife passed away, he decided to move into The Driskill.
He set up shop on the fifth floor of the hotel and lived there for a total of thirty-one-years. Impressive, right? Paranormal enthusiasts claim he didn’t leave, either.
Visitors most often witness Lawless exiting the elevator while glancing at the time. With a single nod to the staff at the front desk, his full-body apparition dissipates from sight.
Employees even claim to see his spirit while they do housekeeping. They report tingling sensations before looking up to find an older gentleman watching them. They say he has black hair and wears dark pants, a white shirt, and a pocket watch.
Then, they witness Peter Lawless vanish before their eyes.
Curiously, paranormal enthusiasts sometimes claim to watch Peter Lawless leave The Driskill before stepping in front of a bus. Perhaps he’s attempting to escape his restless afterlife.
The Elevators
Two rules and joyrides
After a tour, hanging around the Driskill Lobby, you may see me keeping an eye on one or both of the elevators down there. If the door to the elevator opens and someone walks out a little too anxiously and maybe stops and turns and looks back toward the elevator, I’ll approach them and ask what just happened. As if I don’t really know what just happened. Chances are, they were unaware of the rules of the Driscoll elevators. You see, They were originally operated by human beings, and some of the spirits of those helpful employees remain.
I ran into a couple in the lobby who overheard my warnings about the elevator and they exclaimed, “Oh my God, that’s what happened to us today. We were on our way to the 5th floor, and on the way we commented what’s B stand for? I wonder what that is. And the elevator stopped going up, started going down past the lobby and took us down to what we guess is the basement, even though we never touched any of the buttons.”
Phantom Calls
We heard from the front desk staff that when the hotel was preparing to open back up completely to a post Pandemic World, the spirits got very excited. As housekeeping and maintenance made their rounds on the tower floors, hallway phones began ringing. But when a staffer would pick up the receiver, there was never anyone at the other end. Becoming annoyed by the continued interruptions, the tower crew complained to the front desk and said their prank calls weren’t funny. The front desk told them. “We have enough to do down here without making random phone calls and hanging up.”
As head of security, Edwin has earned a day shift, not that there’s any less spirited activity then. But he always says there’s one thing he won’t miss about working nights, It’s the problem, not with the dead, but with the living. In particular, aspiring ghost hunters and people trying to make contact with ghosts. We would sometimes see customers sit on the floor in the hallways underneath the picture of a girl. And pull out a Ouija board. “So one of my favorite things is to go up behind them real quiet and startle them, saying do you have a plan?” After they calmed down from the jump scare, I would ask again, “do you have a plan, a plan for what you’ll do next when whatever you’re trying to reach reaches back?” These customers, these were actually customers staying in the hotel and I escorted them back to their room.
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