Driskill Hotel

The Driskill opened in Austin in December 1886 with a promise built into its scale. Cattleman Jesse Driskill wanted a first-class hotel that could stand beside grand urban hotels elsewhere, and local architect Jasper Preston designed a four-story Romanesque Revival building in brick and limestone. The carved heads of Driskill and his sons still look out from the façades. The building was meant to announce that Austin, newly secure as the state capital, could support a city of ambition.

The opening did not bring its owner lasting security. Driskill had made his money in cattle, including supplying beef to the Confederacy and driving herds north to railheads. A hard winter following drought damaged that business just as the new hotel began operating. Its manager left for another position, the hotel briefly closed, and Driskill sold it in 1888. The building’s early history was thus shaped by two different fortunes: Austin’s growing political importance and the volatility of the cattle economy that financed the project.