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The Servant Girl Annihilator
On Christmas Eve in 1884, Austin became the scene for the first reported serial killer in America. For one year he terrorized Austin killing 9 people. All but two were black servant girls, killing them with an axe and then raping them. The last two murders, on Christmas Eve 1885, were that of upper class white women. To this day the murders have never been solved. All of this happened three years before the famous Jack the Ripper in England.(continue)
Haunted Places in America: A Guide to Spooked and Spooky Public Places in the United States
The Burt Murders
Not long after the Servant Girl Annihilator slayings, the citizens of Austin would confront yet another murderer. In fact, the same police chief who took over during the 1885 investigations, James Lucy, still headed the department when terror struck again in 1896 — this time at the hand of a real-life Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.(continue)
Encyclopedia of Haunted Places: Ghostly Locales from Around the World
The State Capitol
photo by ladybugkt
History- Located at 112 E. 11th St, the original building constructed in 1853, burned to the ground in a fire in 1881. Construction on the new capitol began in 1882. The Texas State Capitol was completed in 1888. It was the tallest building in Austin, and at the time was billed as the “Seventh largest building in the world.” The Capitol is 360,000-square-feet, it stands over 300 feet tall, reportedly contains 392 rooms, 18 vaults, 924 windows, 404 doors, 4,000 railroad cars of granite, 11,000 railroad cars of limestone and other materials, and cost $3,744,600 to build. (continue)
Real Ghosts, Restless Spirits, and Haunted Places
Governors Mansion
Builder Abner Hugh Cook, completed the Mansion in 1856, and shortly thereafter the fourth governor of Texas, Elisha Peace, moved his family into the mansion. In the 1870’s a fire almost destroyed the mansion. The Governor’s Mansion became a Texas Historical Landmark in 1962. The home is also part of the National Register of Historical Places. The mansion is the fourth oldest governor’s mansion continuously occupied in the United States. Thirty-seven governors and their families have lived in the mansion. (continue)
The Driskill Hotel
The Driskill Hotel, opened on December 20, 1886. It was the second tallest building in Austin for many years, the State Capitol Building being the first. Within four months of the Grand Opening, Jesse Driskill was bankrupt and lost the hotel in a high-stakes poker game to J.M. “Doc” Day. The Driskill Hotel closed its doors in May 1887. . Three years later, Driskill died, flat broke. The beautiful hotel reopened under new management and embarked on a long, and rocky career as the reigning queen of Sixth Street. (continue)
Haunted Places (world Of Horror)
UT Clock Tower
Photograph © Wayne Lorentz
History: The Tower is 307 feet tall. It is a shorter building than the nearby State Capitol, but it stands taller as it is built on higher ground. It opened in 1937 and by 1966, it attracted roughly 20,000 visitors a year, most of whom wanted to take in the spectacular view of Austin from the 28th floor observation deck. (continue)
Bufford Tower
photo by chiffonade
This small six story tower was erected in 1930 to provide the Austin Fire Department with a “high rise” building on which to train. As the city grew in size it became impractical to train in the center of town. In 1974 the fire department built a new fire drill tower on Pleasant Valley Road in southeast Austin. In 1978 Mrs. Effie R. Kitchens, whose late husband built the tower donated $30,000 towards a project to restore the decaying structure and add its distinctive carillon. The structure was named for Captain James L. Buford, an Austin fireman who died in the line of duty on June 17, 1972 while attempting to rescue a 15-year old boy during a Shoal Creek flood. The carillon was called the Kitchen Memorial Chimes.
Haunted Places (world Of Horror)
Paramount Theater
photo Nuevo Anden
Built in 1915 for $200,000 this Austin landmark was first known as the Majestic Theatre. Its stage hosted the leading vaudeville entertainers of the day. Over the years, Big Bands, magicians such as Harry Houdini, and performers including Cab Calloway and Mae West thrilled audiences with their talent. Housing the largest stage in Texas, the theatre’s atmosphere of dazzling chandeliers, vaulted ceilings, and rocco décor made patrons feel as if they’d wandered into a Moorish palace.
Ghosts:
Many employees and actors have reported seeing strange lights in the projection room and sensing (continue)
Moon Light Towers
In 1894 Austin purchased 31 used lighting towers from the City of Detroit. A single tower cast a bright light from its six carbon arc lamps, illuminating a 3000 feet circle. Mercury vapor lamps are now in use in these 165 ft. triangular cast-and wrought-iron structures. At that time these types of light towers were common in US urban areas in place of streetlights.
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The World’s Most Haunted Places: Restless Spirits Of Soldiers, Spies,
Pearl Street Inn
History:
The Inn at Pearl Street sits just five blocks from UT atop Judge’s Hill, an area named for the number of jurists who built homes in this area of Austin. The Inn is an 1896 Greek Revival home. (continue)
Neil Cochran House
History-
When Union troops arrived in Austin, they camped along the banks of Shoal Creek, which flooded and created a yellow fever epidemic. The dying soldiers were boarded at a mansion still standing today at 23rd and San Gabriel, and many were buried on the grounds. Col. Andrew Neill, a Texas Revolutionary War veteran, later purchased the house. He died there in 1883.
Ghosts- (continue)
The Clay Pit Restaurant
Built by a group of early settlers in 1853, as a trading post. A business where white men and Indians could carry on their trading. In 1872, O.R. Bertram purchased the building to house his family as well as his dry goods business. Bertram’s General Store occupied the premises for the next eight years. The first floor continued to be used as a store with the saloon in back. The second floor became the Bertram family residence, with a parlor in front and bedrooms in back. (continue)
Ghosts of Gettysburg: Spirits, Apparitions and Haunted Places of the Battlefield
Speakeasy
This building dates back to 1889, when owners Mr. And Mrs. William Kreisle operated a wholesale and retail furniture store. The Kreisle’s sold the building to Southwestern Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1899. In 1916, there was a tragic fire in the Southwestern Telephone and Telegraph building in which five Austin firefighters were injured-one critically. James Glass was caught beneath a falling stairway and his spine was crushed.
Ghosts-(continue)
Triangle Ghost Stories and Haunted Places
Nathan Rhambo
Nathan Rhambo was a handsome man, known also for his manners and good taste. Perhaps that’s why as a young man he was singled out to be the protégé of William M. Tears, one of the most successful black undertakers in the entire South. (continue)
