THE FAUST HOTEL

NEW BRAUNFELS, TEXAS - The Faust Hotel located at 240 South Sequin Street was built on the Faust family homestead. Some 2,000 citizens cheered at the groundbreaking event for the new Travelers Hotel on October 12th, 1929. The local vice president of the chamber of commerce and president of the First National Bank raised funds for the construction and poured himself into the project. He was Walter Faust Jr. He loved the art nouveau Spanish Renaissance style hotel so much that he became its first owner. Walter moved his family into one of the suites and lived there until his death in 1933. In his honor the hotel was renamed "The Faust".

Many guests have spotted a "quaint and old-fashioned" man around the building. ³One former night manager reported the elevator doors would open and no one could be seen exiting the elevator. It happened about the same time every night. He also reported doors would open and close by themselves and chairs would be pushed back into place without anyone near them. Employees grown used to these kind of strange things and brushed them off as Walter is still taking care of the hotel. Lisa Farwell wrote in her book "Haunted Texas Vacations" that a visiting young couple saw an older man running the elevator. The bellman was wearing a plaid jacket. They ask a desk clerk who the man was and he assured then that the hotel did not employ an elevator operator or bellman. It must have been the ghost of Walter.

(This photo of The Faust Hotel is courtesy of TripAdvisor)

It seems Walter's spirit is not alone. Reports of a women carrying a child have been seen in the hallways of the grandiose hotel. They were surrounded by a bluish glow. As the witnesses watch the spectacle they just disappear before their eyes. It's not known who the woman and child are.

A housekeeper has spotted a ghost of a young four or five year old girl playing in the third floor hallway. She is believed to be Christine, an ancestor of Walter Faust. Christine's portrait hangs on the third floor hallway.

When you're in New Braunfels and in need of a place to stay consider the hotel that Walter Faust built. It's still there and so is he.

Walter Faust (This photo of The Faust Hotel is courtesy of TripAdvisor)

201 EAST PECAN STREET

AUSTIN, TEXAS - The building at 201 East Pecan street was built in 1861 by the Ziller Family and opened for business as the first boarding house in Austin, which they called "The Missouri House". It's rumored that the boarding house was also a brothel. Several brothels where known to operate in that area just south east of "Guy Town". Through out the years the building at 201 East Pecan Street served the community as a bar, store, and many other businesses. Always a community place to meet and greet, so to speak. As years past the popular Driskill Hotel was built across the street on the corner of Brazos and Pecan, (now known as 6th Street).

201 East Pecan Street in 2002 (now 6th Street)

Buffalo Billiards

Buffalo Billiards occupies the building today and some say the building is experiencing echoes from it's past in the form of paranormal activities and apparitions. The first week of operation the manager did his normal nightly routine of placing all the pool sticks on the racks, and the billiard balls in their cases before closing and locking the doors for the night. The next morning, he arrived early to catch up on some paperwork after unlocking the front door he noticed that in the front foyer all of the sticks where laying on the tables and the ball were stern everywhere. Several balls were found lying on the floor. The manager immediately thought someone had broken into the store so he called the Austin Police department to report the break in. When the officers arrived they checked the building for any marks of a break-in or signs of intrusions and found none. The building's alarm was still armed and didn't show any signs of being tampered with. The police checked the building for possible intruders hiding within the building and found know one. It looked as if the manager had forgotten to clean up before he closed for the day.

Not long after that strange experience a cleaning woman was on the second floor in the area called the "Orbit Lounge". While mopping the floor of the lounge she felt as if someone had been watching her. When she had finished the chore she left the mop and bucket and went back in to turn off the lights. On her way back to the front door, where she had left the mop and bucket, she felt someone tap her on the shoulder. She turned around and saw nothing but the blackness of the room. She let out a loud scream then ran out of the second floor and the building. She quit the next day and never returned. 

A night bartender was getting the bar ready for a party in the Orbit Lounge one afternoon and had left the floor to get some clean glasses from downstairs. When he walked back up to the second floor lounge he noticed a gentleman in strange attire near a window looking out onto Brazos street. When he asked the man if he could help him the man turned to look at him and smiled. Then turned and walked to where a door had been before the floor was remodeled. He stepped through the wall and down the hall, only to disappear around a corner. When the bartender calmed down enough to tell others what he had seen he mention that the gentleman was wearing a suit like that of someone that lived in the later 1800's.

If you ever visit Buffalo Billiards ask the employees about any paranormal activates in the old building at 201 East Pecan (6th street). Almost everyone has seen or had something happen to them while working there.

THE DRISKILL HOTEL

AUSTIN, TEXAS - The hotel located at 604 Brazos Street in Austin opened its doors to the public on December 20, 1886, a dream came true for cattle baron, Jesse Lincoln Driskill. He had purchased the site for his future hotel in 1885 - an entire city block for $7,500. The venture, once finished, cost the outrageous  $400,000 and quickly became the premier "frontier queen" hostelry. Jasper N. Preston and Sons of Austin designed the original cream-colored brick and limestone building, which was apparently inspired by H. H. Richardson's recently completed Ames Building in Boston. Driskill had busts of himself and his two sons, Tobe and Bud, installed over each entrance. In October 1898, Austin's first long-distance telephone call was placed from the lobby.

Photo: PICA 05041, Austin History Center, Austin Public Library

  Since Austin is the capital city of the state, the Driskill Hotel was the place to be seen if you were a political figure. Many deals and compromises that effected the state of Texas and the world where made within the walls of the Driskill, and former US President Lyndon Johnson often watched election returns at the Driskill. Indeed, history has been made within its walls.
Some say that Colonel Driskill (an honorary title bestowed on him by the Confederate army during the Civil War) loved his hotel so much that his spirit remains on the property he purchased so long ago. According to Austin Ghost Tours, Driskill makes his presence known by the smell of cigar smoke. He is believed to turn bathroom lights on and off in several guest rooms on the top floors of the hotel.

Another apparition is the four-year-old daughter of a US Senator. She haunts the grand staircase leading from the mezzanine down to the lobby. The little girl was playing unattended with a ball when she slipped and fell to the marble floor at the bottom of the stairs and was killed. The front desk staff has heard the child bouncing the ball down the steps and giggling.

In the early 1990s, a Houston woman took a trip to the Driskill to try and recuperate from a wedding that her fiancé called off at the last minute . Staying in Room 29, she decided the best way to help herself would be to go on a week-long shopping spree with her fiancé's credit cards.  She was last seen coming out of the elevator on the fourth floor with her arms filled with numerous bags and packages, and her body was discovered three days later when the housekeepers became concerned that she hadn't left the room to eat. Her body was found lying in the bathtub; she had shot herself in the stomach, muffling the sound with a pillow. The Austin Police Department crime scene photographer reported that it was a sad to see such a young women commit suicide when she could have had a long, happy life ahead of her. 

An Austin Ghost Tour guide tells the story of two women who wanted to see a ghost and had heard the story of the Houston woman. At the time, the fourth floor was undergoing restoration and wasn't open for overnight stays, so the ladies got a room on the other side of the hotel. The women stayed out late visiting Sixth Street and came in around 2 AM. Being curious, they decided to stop the elevator on the fourth floor and have a look around. However, when they saw the hallways were lined with plastic and all of the beautiful paintings had been removed from the walls, they decided it wasn't such a good ideal to be walking around there after all, and they called he elevator back. When the elevator door opened, a young women stepped out with her arms full of bags and packages; she walked past them without saying a word and headed down the dark plastic-lined hallway. The two ladies wondered and how the woman could have done any shopping at that time of night. Following her down the hallway they asked if the renovations were bothering her. She replied, "No, It's not bothering me," then went into Room 29. The women became troubled and decided to get to their floor as fast as they could. The next day, they asked the front desk clerk why someone was staying in Room 29, since they were told no one could stay on that floor during the repairs. The clerk assured them no one was staying on the floor and took the two ladies up to Room 29. The group found the room still draped in plastic, without a bed, and with a bathroom sink sitting in the middle of the floor. The ladies then realized they had seen the ghost of the "Houston Bride."

The Driskill Hotel on YouTube

Many other ghosts have been seen roaming the hallways and rooms of the Driskill. What Was Then recommends Austin Ghost Tours for a firsthand look at the hotel and to learn more about the many guests still checked in at the Driskill.

LINKS
		THE DRISKILL HOTEL - Book a stay at the famous Austin Hotel.
		AUSTIN GHOST TOURS - Take the tour for yourself. We dare ya! Spinner Magazine - Ghost of A Texas Ladies Man

THE MENGER HOTEL

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS -  Twenty-year-old German emigrant William Menger arrived in San Antonio in the early 1840's and started a brewery called the Western Brewery (1855-78) with Charles Phillip Degen, the brewmaster. It was considered the first commercial Texas brewery. In 1878, it had grown to be the largest operating brewery in Texas.

The Menger

 In 1857 William and his wife, Mary Guenther Menger, decided to expand their boardinghouse next to the brewery at 204 Alamo Plaza. Local architect John M. Fries is credited with designing the two-story cut-stone building, which features classical detail; John Hermann Kampmann oversaw construction of the project. The foundations were laid on June 18, 1858, and the hotel opened for business January 31, 1859. Only 23 years after the famous battle that took the lives 189 Alamo defenders and 1600 Mexican troops.

The Menger Hotel still contains the large cellar; constructed of three-foot-thick stonewalls, that were used to chill the beer produced by the brewery. The cellar was kept cool by the Alamo Madre ditch that flowed through what is now the patio of the hotel.  Menger had a tunnel constructed between the two buildings. The tunnel opens off the basement, through which he led groups of selected guests on tours of the adjacent brewery. Menger died at the hotel in March 1871, and his widow and son took over the management.

The Hotel has attracted the rich and famous as guests through the years. Capitan Richard King considered the Menger a home away from his home and stayed at the hotel whenever he had business to conduct in San Antonio. Mr. King was the owner and founder of the King Ranch in South Texas. In 1885 while on one of his frequent trips King took ill. His physician told him he wouldn't live much longer. King would linger on in his personal suite (now named the King Ranch suite) to say his good byes to his family and friends and wrap up what business he could. When he passed away in August his funeral was conducted in the Menger's lobby.

Capitan Richard King

 Several hotel guests while walking down hallways have reported seeing a man dressed in an old western-style suit, with a string tie, and a broad-brimmed black hat casually walking directly into a closed door. The door that leads in into the King Ranch suite.

The Menger's bar is a replica of the House of Lord's Pub in London, England. Hermann Kampmann sent an architect to examine the pub and duplicate the bar as closely as possible. The bar originally faced Alamo Plaza, but was moved to its present location facing Crockett street in 1949. Prior to its relocation, there had been a livery stable  for the convenience of the Menger guests.

The hotel bar also played an important role in the history of this country when a young future president, then a cavalry colonel stationed at Fort Sam Houston, convinced a group of Texas cowboys to join the cavalry by buying them a "full" mug of Menger's famous beer. The boisterous colonel was Teddy Roosevelt and he was recruiting men for his now famous "Rough Riders".  A former employee said he has seen a spirit, dressed in an old-fashioned military uniform beckoning to him to come to the bar one night while he cleaning. He stated he turned to run out of the closed bar and found himself locked in. While he hysterically yelled to his coworkers to open the door, the military specter sat quietly at the bar observing the panicked man's attempts to escape. Once the door was opened the terrified man left and never returned to his job at the Menger.

Teddy Roosevelt
Among the many famous guest of the Menger Hotel

 Presidents Taft, McKinley, Eisenhower, and Nixon all were former guests of the Menger. A photo of Harry Truman hangs in the lobby, taken during one of his visits to the hotel. 

Sadly the most sighted phantom at the Menger is that of a chambermaid who worked there in 1876. Her life was cut short in March when her jealous common-law husband, Henry Wheeler, shot her as she went about her duties at the Menger. She died in one of the third-floor rooms in the original section of the hotel. Today in the lobby, guest can see an old ledger, which is opened to an entry by Fredrick Hahn; in the "cash paid" column, he wrote, " To cash paid for the coffin for Salie White, col'd chambermaid, deceased, murdered by her husband, shot March 28, died March 30, $25 for coffin and $7 for grave, total $32." She has been seen roaming the hallways on the third floor appearing dressed in a full-length shirt with a scarf or bandanna tied around her head, an apron, and a long necklace of beads. 

A maid cleaning one of the rooms saw a figure of a tall American Indian sporting a long black braid and wearing a white shirt and black pants. She stated he suddenly materialized between two beds. The maid, accustom to other paranormal activity while working at the hotel, stood calmly while staring at the now solid Indian standing before her eyes. She then began screaming her head off and the Indian vaporized before her eyes. The apparition is believed to be that of Geronimo. He was imprisoned in the basement of the hotel while being transported to a reservation.

 

 Other famous guest of the Menger include the names of French actress Sarah Bernhardt, Beverly Sills, Buffalo Bill Cody, Oscar Wilde and regular visitors Roy Rogers & Dale Evans. A suite has been named after the famous pair at the hotel. 

 

Many deaths, suicides, and murders have taken place throughout the almost 150 years at 204 Alamo Plaza. Just how many still remain guests of the majestic hotel remains a secret. A secret that you could help solve by booking yourself a stay at one of American's most haunted hotels.

THE HAUNTING OF JEFFERSON

JEFFERSON, TEXAS - In East Texas near the Louisiana border is the historic town of Jefferson, named after the third U.S. President, Thomas Jefferson, when Allen Urquhart and Daniel Alley founded it in the early 1840s. There are 84 Texas Historical Commission medallions signifying historic locations within the Jefferson city limits. This community once resembled Louisiana and Missouri more than it did its own Texas neighbors to the west; instead of cowboys and ranchers, there were riverboat captains, dock-hands, and lumbermen. Marion County became part of the United States territories in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, and the town of Jefferson received a great influx of early immigration because of the "Great Raft," a routed waterway into the Cypress Bayou that allowed the steamboats to reach Jefferson. The steamboat came up the Mississippi River into the Red River, through Caddo Lake, and up Big Cypress to what was known as the "Turning Basin." The first steamboat, the Llama, reached Jefferson in late 1843 or early 1844. Jefferson experienced its heyday after the Civil War ended, as people came in from the devastated southern states to seek new lives.

JEFFERSON HOTEL (May 31, 2008)

The building located at 124 West Austin Street began as a cotton warehouse in 1851. When the steamboat port closed in the 1870s, the building was transformed into a hotel. Over the years the hotel has gone by several names, including the Hotel Jefferson, the Grigsby Hotel, and the Austin Street Hotel.

Michael and Elise Lakey are the current proprietors of the beautiful 152-year-old hotel. While visiting Jefferson for a Big Foot conference, I stopped by to visit and found the staff very open about the paranormal activities at the hotel. They even told me about their personal experiences with the unknown while working in the building. When you visit, don't forget to ask the front desk clerk to let you read the hotel journal, where visitors write about their paranormal encounters while staying at the hotel. The following is taken from a brochure from the hotel lobby entitled "Ghostly Tales of The Jefferson Hotel":
  
Some of the most reported similar occurrences:

Whispers from nowhere, orchestra music from a closed dining hall, knocks on walls and Victorian head-boards, the smell of cigar smoke in the smoke-free building, faucets opening of their own accord and doors pulling back when pulled shut.

 Guests who have been the only people checked into the hotel reported footsteps walking the halls in the middle of the night. Even though the hall is carpeted, the sound is often the click-clack of a hardwood floor.

Children have been heard laughing and romping throughout the hotel in the middle of the night. A child calls for mama, a baby cries, but no children were staying in the hotel!

Jefferson Hotel Lobby

Years ago, a former desk clerk named Michael was ending his shift. It was in the middle of a slow week and there were no "paying" guests staying at the hotel overnight. Michael made his rounds upstairs, turning off lights and locking rooms before leaving for the night. He was closing the last door in the long, dark hallway when the doors started opening and slamming shut all at once!

Lights turned on and off as Michael dashed downstairs and phoned his friend Phyllis, a desk clerk at the Excelsior Hotel across the street. Phyllis reports that Michael was in a complete panic when he called, screaming that he was alone in the hotel but all "heck" was breaking loose upstairs! He could hear doors slamming and the sound of footsteps and someone dragging furniture. Michael locked up and waited in the street for his ride home that night. While this writer visited the hotel, I sat in the lobby and spoke to the night desk clerk. She told me that on many nights, guests who experienced a paranormal event would come down and spend the rest of the night on the lobby chairs rather than spend another minute in their haunted rooms. Some have even checked out!

The desk clerk also mentioned that on quiet nights, she sometimes hears people walking down the stairs and waits to see if she can help them, but no one ever comes down to the lobby—at least no one who can be seen. Many guests have taken photos and shared some of them with the hotel. A folder is kept behind the front desk containing some of the photos showing ORBS and strange mist.

Jefferson Hotel stairs leading up to the second floor

So is the Jefferson Hotel the most haunted hotel in America? Maybe not, but it should be in the Top 20 at least. If you’re ever in East Texas and want to stay in a beautiful 152-year-old hotel, stop by 124 West Austin Street in Jefferson and spend a night in the Jefferson Hotel.