Haunted Places Austin: Ghostly Historic Buildings & Dark Legends

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Step into the shadowy side of the Live Music Capital of the World, where historic Victorian architecture, bloodcurdling true crime stories, and century-old legends meet. From luxurious historic hotels where uninvited spectral guests never checked out to eerie street corners in the heart of downtown, Austin has a rich paranormal footprint.

Whether you are a seasoned ghost hunter looking for active sites or a curious local eager to discover the dark history behind your favorite city spots, this guide covers the most famous haunted places in the area. Grab a friend, keep the lights on, and explore the most haunted places Austin has.

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Also, check out our articles on the Best Corn Mazes in Austin, Best Pumpkin Patches in Austin, Fall Festivals Austin, October Events for Kids in Austin, and October Events for Adults in Austin!

Haunted Places Austin: Historic Downtown Hotels & Landmark Ghost Stories

The Driskill Hotel

Room 525 is Austin’s most haunted hotel’s most requested room, thanks to reports of two brides who allegedly died by suicide there decades apart, reportedly on the same calendar day, both after their engagements fell apart.

The more recent death occurred in 1991, when a woman from Houston arrived at the hotel, charged tens of thousands of dollars to her ex-fiancé’s credit card, carried her shopping bags to Room 525, and shot herself in the bathroom.

Guests have since reported seeing a woman carrying shopping bags or a pistol in the corridor before she disappears through a wall without opening a door.

The first bride, said to have died in the 1800s, reportedly still wanders the hallway in a Victorian gown.

The fifth floor has another mysterious resident, a little girl named Samantha. Multiple parents have returned from checking on their children to hear them describe playing with Samantha, despite never having introduced them to a girl by that name.

Guests also report that a portrait of an unidentified young girl on the same floor seems to follow them with its eyes, no matter where they stand.

Another frequently reported apparition is Peter Lawless, a railroad ticket agent who moved to the fifth floor after his wife died and lived there for 31 years until he died in 1917.

Housekeeping staff describe feeling a tingling sensation before spotting an older man with black hair, dark pants, a white shirt, and a pocket watch watching them work. Other guests have independently reported seeing a man matching that description step off the elevator, check his watch, nod at the front desk, and vanish.

Where: 604 Brazos St, Austin, TX 78701
When: Open 24/7
How Much: Free to visit

The Littlefield House

The Littlefield House’s haunting is often blamed on a story that George Littlefield locked his wife Alice in the attic, but the family’s descendant, Dr. David Gracy, has disputed that account, saying, “That is simply no concept.”

The documented history is different. Around 1912, when Alice was about 65, she developed severe delusions, believing people would be murdered in the house and that George’s enemies would kidnap her.

A doctor recommended institutionalizing her, but George refused. He brought her home, hired three nurses to care for her around the clock, and looked after her personally until he died of pneumonia in the house in 1920.

After George’s death, Alice’s condition unexpectedly and completely improved. She lived alone in the house for another 15 years, died in 1935 at age 88, and left the property to the University of Texas.

Today, staff report piano music drifting from the second floor when nobody is inside. Alice was the household’s primary pianist, and the same floor, where her rooms were located, is also where employees report unexplained movements and an overwhelming sense of unease.

Interior access is available only through the university, but the grounds are accessible 24/7, and the window where Alice reportedly still appears can be seen from the sidewalk.

Where: 302 W 24th St, Austin, TX 78705
When: Grounds open 24/7
How Much: Not open to the public

Texas State Capitol

Image credit: Texas State Capitol

In 1903, State Comptroller Robert Marshall Love was shot dead at his desk inside the Texas State Capitol by former employee W. G. Hill.

On June 30, Hill walked in carrying a letter that called Love a “base hypocrite and a tyrant.” Love welcomed him, but before he could finish reading, Hill pulled out a .44-caliber pistol and shot him twice in the chest.

A government worker tackled Hill in the corridor, and during the struggle, Hill was shot with his own gun. He died later that day off the Capitol grounds. Love died in his office about an hour after the shooting.

The killing was the first assassination of a public official in Texas history.

According to local legend, Love still walks the Capitol’s East Wing in a top hat, while Hill’s ghost is not reported there because he died outside the building. Love is also said to appear on misty mornings along the Capitol promenade, walking toward the building in period clothing and carrying a cane.

Two other figures reportedly haunt the Capitol. Former Governor Edmund Jackson Davis, who died in 1883, is associated with sightings accompanied by sudden temperature drops and a reportedly paralyzing stare.

The Lady in Red, meanwhile, is an unidentified woman in a red dress seen after hours in sections closed to the public. She’s believed to be waiting for a former politician in his old office, but her identity has never been confirmed.

These reports make the Capitol a notable stop for anyone interested in Austin ghost stories, especially those tied to documented deaths.

Where: 1100 Congress Ave., Austin, TX 78701
When: Monday – Friday: 7 am – 8 pm | Saturday – Sunday: 9 am – 8 pm
How Much: Free to visit

Paramount Theatre

At the Paramount Theatre, the most famous ghost reportedly has unfinished business on the mezzanine.

The apparition is described as a woman in a white dress who moves toward the south wall and disappears straight through it. According to the theater’s own account of the legend, she may be searching for her husband, a soldier reported missing during the Republic of Texas era.

The theory is that she’s still trying to reach the former war office once located on the site.

In 2017, pianist Chad Lawson reportedly captured the woman in a picture while taking three quick photographs from the stage after a soundcheck. A female figure appears in the mezzanine stairwell in the middle image but not in the photographs taken immediately before and after it.

The theater also has a cigar-smoking phantom. Longtime volunteer Flo Thompson has reportedly smelled cigar smoke near the left opera box, where an elderly man dressed in 1920s clothing is said to sit.

The catch? Smoking isn’t allowed inside the theater, and the box reportedly has no nearby ventilation that would easily explain the smell.

The theater’s ghost stories also include a presence believed to be former assistant projectionist Alvin Red Wing, with reports of unexplained giggling from the empty stage.

Apparently, even after the audience leaves, the Paramount may still have a few performers on the clock.

Where: 713 Congress Ave, Austin, TX 78701
When: Varies by schedule of performances
How Much: Free to visit

Moonlight Towers

Austin’s Moonlight Towers aren’t haunted houses in the traditional sense. Their eerie reputation comes from their association with one of the city’s darkest unsolved mysteries: the Servant Girl Annihilator murders.

Between 1884 and 1885, an unidentified killer murdered eight people in Austin, most of them Black women working as domestic servants. The attacks happened at night, often involving an axe, and the killer was never brought to trial.

The murders abruptly stopped after Christmas Eve 1885, when two white women were killed in a single night. Despite numerous arrests and later discoveries of historical records, the killer’s identity remains unknown.

Austin’s moonlight towers arrived years later, with the first lights switched on in 1895. There’s no documented evidence linking their installation to the murders, but the association has endured in local lore.

After all, the towers cast light over the streets where residents once faced the threat of a killer who struck after dark, creating a chilling connection between Austin’s old nighttime fears and the city’s surviving landmarks.

Where: Two locations in Austin
When: Open 24/7
How Much: Free

Haunted Places Austin: Spectral Parks & Eerie Cemeteries

Oakwood Cemetery

Three victims of Austin’s unsolved Servant Girl Annihilator murders are buried at Oakwood Cemetery, including 17-year-old Eula Phillips.

On Christmas Eve 1885, Eula was found murdered in an unlit alley, her skull crushed with an axe and heavy timber laid across her arms.

A Fort Worth Gazette reporter described her face as “turned upward in the dim moonlight with an expression of agony that death itself had not erased.” Eula’s husband was convicted but later walked free, and the killer was never identified.

Eula lies in the cemetery’s Old Green section, on a hill overlooking Colored Green, where other victims of the same killer are buried.

Psychic mediums who have visited independently describe sensing a young woman who seems confused about her death and unable to find peace. Visitors have also reported orbs near the Phillips plot, though these images don’t establish paranormal activity.

Eula isn’t the only spirit associated with Oakwood. Confederate General Thomas Green is reportedly seen wandering among the headstones in full military regalia, while investigators near his grave have recorded what they describe as phantom hoofbeats, believed to echo the cavalry charge at Blair’s Landing where he died.

Another spirit is that of Susanna Dickinson, the only adult Anglo survivor of the Alamo, who is buried in Section 1, Lot 363. She watched her husband get shot and bayoneted while holding their infant daughter, was escorted out by Santa Anna himself, and spent the rest of her life preserving the battle’s history despite being unable to read or write.

Visitors claim to see her apparition appear before strangers and disappear before they can speak.

Where: 1601 Navasota St, Austin, TX 78702
When: Daily: 7 am – 7 pm
How Much: Free

Shoal Creek Greenbelt

Image credit: Shoal Creek Conservancy

Shoal Creek Greenbelt’s ghost stories center on two episodes of death along the waterway. In 1839, settler Gideon White built a family cabin near the creek’s springs, despite knowing the land was sacred to the Comanche and Tonkawa.

An earlier confrontation there had ended with a man named Hibbins disemboweled and thrown into the creek after warriors failed to recapture his wife. Three years after White settled there, he was beaten to death.

According to accounts of the incident, neighbors who came to bury the family discovered a mass grave beneath the site, containing bodies that showed signs of violent death alongside victims of cholera and yellow fever.

White’s attacker was buried in an unmarked grave near the creek, while White was later buried at Oakwood Cemetery. Today, a historical marker near 34th Street commemorates the area.

Nearby, UT paranormal investigator Alejandro Dominguez recorded what he described as two distinct voices in the creek’s ambient noise. Others have reported hearing a man screaming, believed to be White.

Where: 2600 N Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78705
When: Daily: 5 am – 10 pm
How Much: Free

Metz Park

The haunting associated with Metz Park centers on the former Metz Elementary School, not the park itself.

In fall 1990, Torres Trucking and Excavation began demolishing and rebuilding the school, which had opened in 1916 and been declared structurally unsalvageable.

Workers soon reported a boy’s face watching them from a bathroom window, children giggling in empty rooms, chalk screeching across unseen classroom boards, and strange drawings appearing on bare walls. Heavy machinery also began to fail.

Eventually, the crew demanded an exorcism. Elias Limon of the Casa Guadalupe Catholic Center arrived with holy water and a prayer book.

The demolition was completed, but reports continued after the school was rebuilt.

Austin Ghost Tours later brought a UT film crew to the campus and captured what they identified as electronic voice phenomena (EVP) in the cafeteria.

The school is now permanently closed, leaving visitors to explore its reported haunting through the accounts of those who worked there.

Where: 84 Robert T Martinez Jr St, Austin, TX 78702
When: Not open to the public
How Much: Free

Haunted Restaurants & Dark Lore Bars in ATX

The Tavern

Image credit: The Tavern Austin

Designed by UT architecture dean Hugo Franz Kuehne, The Tavern opened in 1916 after Prohibition derailed plans for a German-style beer hall. The building reportedly became a grocery store by day and a bar, casino, and brothel upstairs by night.

Its best-known ghost is Emily, a spirit said to roam the upstairs rooms and play pranks on patrons. Reports include unexplained touches, phantom footsteps, and the sound of a pool game when nobody is playing. But no one really knows Emily’s backstory.

An early version, told by a long-time patron who claimed clairvoyant abilities, describes her as a prostitute murdered in the building. Another version identifies her as a child.

Staff and customers have also experienced strange occurrences in the Tavern. This includes hearing a woman crying in the downstairs bathrooms, having someone press on their back with no one behind them, getting rocks thrown at them during closing, dishes smashing in the kitchen, and more.

The building has also produced some unusual discoveries. During a 2003 renovation, workers found a pair of small shoes sealed inside a crawlspace in the upstairs wall; they’re now displayed in a glass case on the second floor.

A decade earlier, workers uncovered a tunnel connecting the building to the old Spaghetti House next door, lending support to stories about its alleged speakeasy-era past.

Today, owner Shannon Sedwick plays Emily in a murder-mystery dinner theatre production called The Haunting of the Tavern, and Haunted ATX includes the bar on its ghost tours. Visitors can stop in for a beer, see the shoes on display, and hear the evolving legend of the spirit said to haunt the building.

Where: 922 W 12th St, Austin, TX 78703
When: Sunday – Thursday: 11 am – 11 pm | Friday – Saturday: 11 am – 12 am
How Much: Free to visit

Casino El Camino

The building at 517 E. Sixth Street has a history that predates Austin’s modern bar scene. Sanborn insurance maps from 1885 list it as the Curtis House Boarding facility, making it one of the oldest documented uses of a property on Dirty Sixth. According to local lore, one former resident, Mary, never left.

The ghost has become such a fixture that the bar even named its Bloody Mary after her.

One of the place’s bartenders even refused to close the bar alone after the back door of the Diablo Room opened and slammed shut with nobody nearby. Other staff and visitors have reported unexplained taps on their shoulders, doors slamming at the rear of the bar, and cold spots that seem to move.

The reports have earned Casino El Camino appearances on multiple ghost-hunting shows, though most visitors still know it for its famous Amarillo Burger. Order one, try the Bloody Mary, and decide what you make of Mary’s reputation.

Where: 517 E 6th St, Austin, TX 78701
When: Daily: 11:30 am – 2 am
How Much: Free to visit

Speakeasy

Before it became a bar, the Kreisle Building at Congress and 4th was the scene of a deadly fire. On July 23, 1916, witnesses heard explosions around midday, and the building was engulfed in flames within minutes.

Two women working for the Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company became trapped in an elevator while trying to escape and died inside. Firefighter James T. Glass was caught beneath a falling wall and staircase, crushing his spine. He survived the fire but remained paralyzed at Brackenridge Hospital until his death on August 17, 1917.

Today, the rebuilt two-story building houses Speakeasy, where reports of unexplained activity often center on the places and events associated with that tragedy.

One of the bartenders was reportedly locked inside the bowling alley’s maintenance room by an unknown force. Other reports include screams and running footsteps on the 59-step staircase, tools mysteriously moved during renovations, and a woman’s apparition near the antique elevator.

Where: 412 Congress Ave D, Austin, TX 78701
When: Wednesday – Saturday: 11:30 am – 2 am | Sunday – Monday: 4 pm – 12 am | Tuesday: 4 pm – 2 am
How Much: Free to visit

Clay Pit

Clay Pit occupies a building at 1601 Guadalupe where Rudolph Bertram opened a general merchandise store and saloon in 1872, living upstairs with his eight children. Several died there: two daughters, aged 8 and 10, from diphtheria, and at least one son from typhoid fever linked to contaminated well water.

A prostitute was also murdered in the basement, now the setting for some of the building’s reported paranormal activity.

However, the reported activity differs by floor. In the cellar, staff say they hear their names called near the stairwell when nobody is there.

During a photo shoot featuring a model dressed as the rumored prostitute ghost, the lights reportedly began flickering and the model grew faint and ill.

A Haunted ATX tour guest also reported seeing a young boy on the staircase leading to the second floor.

The second-floor Bombay Room is the building’s designated paranormal hotspot. Investigators have reported drained batteries, erratic electromagnetic field (EMF) readings, and high temperature drops there.

Visitors can request the room when booking, while Haunted ATX hearse tours provide access to the cellar.

Where: 1601 Guadalupe St, Austin, TX 78701
When: Monday – Thursday: 11 am – 9 pm | Friday – Saturday: 11 am – 10 pm | Sunday: 3 pm – 9 pm
How Much: Free to visit

Spooky Suburban & Outer ATX Legends

Pioneer Farms

Image credit: Pioneer Farms

Pioneer Farms is known for reported hauntings at the Bell House and around the 600-year-old Pioneer Oak, where visitors and volunteers have described unexplained sounds, moving objects, and apparitions.

The Bell House, built in 1859 by Judge James Hall Bell, has one of the site’s most persistent ghost stories. His wife, Catherine, is believed to haunt the house, where overnight guests have reportedly been awakened by a woman humming or singing.

Other encounters have been reported inside the house during the day. Five volunteers heard a harp playing in the parlor, and the two nearest the doorway said they saw the instrument move and lean, as though something were pushing past them into the room. In another incident, a candle on a washstand reportedly spun in its holder, rose, and crashed to the floor.

The Pioneer Oak has its own recurring apparition story. Visitors, particularly children, have reported seeing a young Native American girl beneath the tree, peeking around its trunk, or sitting in its branches.

Volunteers have also reported seeing a man in Native American clothing enter a teepee and disappear.

Visitors can explore the grounds during regular opening hours, book after-hours investigations held on the first Saturday of each month, or take a 12-stop audio ghost tour for $15 to daytime admission.

Where: 10621 Pioneer Farms Dr, Austin, TX 78754
When: Thursday – Sunday: 10 am – 2 pm
How Much: $10

Know Before You Go

While many of these haunted places in Austin are located within the downtown core, they are easily accessible for residents across the Greater Austin area. Whether you are coming from Round Rock, Pflugerville, Westlake, or Cedar Park, most locations sit within a quick 15- to 30-minute drive.

Parking in downtown Austin near sites like The Driskill or Congress Avenue can be found in nearby pay garages or via street parking meters, while suburban spots like Pioneer Farms offer plenty of free on-site parking.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the most haunted hotel in Austin?

The Driskill Hotel is widely recognized as the most haunted hotel in Austin. Built in 1886, it is famous for supernatural activity, including sightings of cattle baron Jesse Driskill, phantom sounds on upper floors, and cold spots near room 525.

Are there guided ghost tours available in downtown Austin?

Yes, Austin features several top-rated walking ghost tours, including Austin Ghosts and Ghost City Tours. These guided walks take visitors through historic streetscapes, including iconic haunted stops along 6th Street, Congress Avenue, and the Texas State Capitol grounds.

Can you visit haunted spots in Austin for free?

Many of Austin’s most famous eerie sites are completely free to visit. You can walk through Oakwood Cemetery, admire the exterior of the Littlefield House on the UT campus, explore the grounds of the Texas State Capitol, or view the historic Moonlight Towers without spending a dime.

Looking for more? See the upcoming Weekend Events in Austin.