AUSTIN, Texas — On Dec. 20, 1886, Austin got an early Christmas gift: its tallest building and its grandest hotel in the middle of downtown.
Today, after nearly 140 years of ups and downs in the heart of a city that no one back then could have imagined, the Driskill Hotel has survived and thrived.
This past week, the Driskill celebrated its 137th birthday, and despite the good news that it’s still with us today, the history of the Driskill is also a story of heartbreak for the family who built it.
A cattle baron named Col. Jesse Driskill from Wyoming was a man with a dream. After arriving in Austin, he vowed to build the grandest hotel in the city. Using $400,000 of his own money – much of it earnings he received from selling beef to the Confederate Army, his dream was realized.
Sadly, just a few years later, Col. Driskill had to shut down the hotel. A severe winter in Wyoming destroyed 3000 head of his cattle. He was bankrupted and forced to sell his hotel.
Col. Driskill died just a few years later, some say from a broken heart.
But somehow, his name, and his hotel, survived, and has had an extraordinary history at the center of civic and political life in Austin.
Today, the Driskill remains one of the premier hotels in the city, featuring lavish bridal suites, two restaurants and a grand ballroom.
No doubt, the colonel would be proud to see what his namesake has become.