The Stephen F. Austin Hotel, Austin: Room 408 and a Century on Congress Avenue

The Stephen F. Austin opened on Congress Avenue on May 19, 1924, as the first high-rise hotel on the street that runs straight up to the Texas Capitol. For a hundred years it has been where legislators, lobbyists, campaign staff and travelers meet, drink and stay up late. Today it trades as The Stephen F. Austin Royal Sonesta Hotel, with 190 rooms over 15 floors and a bar that looks right down onto Congress Avenue.

Its ghost stories are quieter than those of the Driskill a few blocks away, but they are persistent. Local lore says the hotel was built over a Civil War hospital and morgue, ghost tour writers say guests and staff report spirits from several eras, and one guest’s account of a night in Room 408 has become the hotel’s best-known haunting. The hotel is now also a stop on Ghost Walk Austin. It sits on our list of haunted hotels in Austin, alongside the city’s other haunted places.

The ghosts of The Stephen F. Austin Royal Sonesta Hotel

Room 408: the light and the bathroom door

The story most often told about the Stephen F. Austin comes from a guest review quoted by Ghost City Tours. After turning out the light for the night in Room 408, the guest says the room light came back on by itself and flashed five or six times, then stayed on for about ten seconds.

Then the bathroom door, which the guest had closed, slowly swung all the way open. The light went off again and stayed off for the rest of the night, but the guest says sleep did not come easily after that. It is a single account and there is no way to check it, yet it is the reason ghost hunters ask for Room 408 by name.

The Civil War hospital and morgue legend

The deeper layer of the hotel’s ghost lore is the claim that it stands on the site of a Civil War hospital and morgue, and that some of the spirits people sense here belong to soldiers who died there. Ghost City Tours repeats this as local lore.

We could find no historian or record that confirms a Civil War hospital on this block, so treat it as a story rather than history. What is documented is that this corner of Congress Avenue has been built on since Austin’s earliest days: Walking Tours of Austin say the area was home to Fort Waterloo, a defensive post from the 1830s when the town was still called Waterloo.

Spirits from several eras

Rather than one named ghost, the Stephen F. Austin is said to hold a crowd. Ghost tour writers say guests and staff report spirits from various eras, which fits a building that has seen a century of political campaigns, ballroom dances, wartime crowds and late-night deals.

The reports are the familiar ones: lights and doors that behave oddly, a sense of being watched in the older corridors, and the feeling that a room is occupied when it is not. None of the spirits has been given a name, and the hotel itself does not market its ghosts.

Stephen F's Bar and the balcony on Ghost Walk Austin

Walking Tours of Austin recently added the hotel as a stop on two of its tours, including Ghost Walk Austin. Guests on the tour get into Stephen F’s Bar and Terrace and out onto the historic balcony, with views over Congress Avenue to the Capitol dome and the Paramount Theatre.

The tour company says the bar’s long history makes it a natural fit for a ghost walk. It is the easiest way to hear the hotel’s stories told on the spot, even if you are not staying the night.

The most haunted rooms and places to look

• Room 408: The room behind the hotel’s best-known ghost story, with a light that flashed on by itself and a bathroom door that opened on its own.
• Stephen F's Bar and Terrace: The hotel says it is the only bar that overlooks Congress Avenue. It is a Ghost Walk Austin stop and the best place to people-watch the street after dark.
• The Congress Avenue balcony: Recently opened to tour guests, with views of the Capitol dome and the Paramount Theatre.
• The historic staircase and older corridors: The grand staircase was recreated in the 2000 restoration after earlier remodels removed it, and the older corridors are where guests most often describe the feeling of not being alone.

History of The Stephen F. Austin Royal Sonesta Hotel

The hotel was paid for by Austin itself. According to Sonesta, local people put up $600,000 to build a modern hotel on Congress Avenue, and it opened on May 19, 1924, with 250 rooms and the Longhorn Garden, a rooftop ballroom with 125 windows. The builder was T.B. Baker of Baker Hotels, on the site of the earlier Keystona Hotel, and the Fort Worth firm Sanguinet, Staats and Hedrick designed it, according to the Texas Historical Commission marker. Baker meant to call it The Texas, but locals asked for a name with more Austin in it, so it was named for Stephen F. Austin, the empresario often called the Father of Texas. At ten stories it was the tallest private building in town, second only to the Capitol.

In 1938 the rooftop ballroom was removed and five more stories were added, taking the hotel to 15 floors and 375 rooms and making it, for a time, the tallest building in Austin. Its location two blocks from the Capitol made it a political address from the start. Lyndon B. Johnson ran his 1937 congressional campaign from the hotel, and in 1959 he introduced FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in the hotel’s ballroom. Governors, legislators and, by the hotel’s account, a presidential campaign in 2000 have all set up shop here.

Like many downtown hotels, the Stephen F. Austin went through lean decades as the city spread outward, and after the 1987 oil bust it stood empty for about eleven years, according to Sonesta. A restoration led by Nix Group Architects reopened it in 2000. Earlier remodels had stripped out much of the original lobby, including the grand staircase, and craftsmen recreated those features using traditional methods. The hotel became a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark, with a state marker placed in 2002. Today it has 190 rooms, about half its 1938 peak.

In December 2020 it was renamed The Stephen F. Austin Royal Sonesta Hotel, and it celebrated its centennial in 2024. The restaurant and Stephen F’s Bar still face Congress Avenue, and the bar’s balcony is one of the few places downtown where you can sit above the street with the Capitol in view.

Tips for a haunted stay

• Ask for Room 408 at check-in rather than by email. If it is free, the front desk can usually move you.
• Book Ghost Walk Austin for a night of your stay: it includes the hotel’s bar and balcony, and you can walk back to your room afterward.
• Request a room on the Congress Avenue side for Capitol views and the busiest street life.
• Pair your stay with a walk to the Driskill, Austin’s most famous haunted hotel, a few blocks away.
• Parking is valet only and pricey. If you can, arrive without a car: most of downtown is walkable from here.
• The hotel is busiest when the Legislature is in session and on UT football weekends, so book early.

More haunted hotels nearby

• The Driskill: Austin’s grand 1886 hotel and the city’s best-known haunting, a short walk away
• Menger Hotel: San Antonio’s most haunted hotel, next to the Alamo, about 80 miles south
• The Crockett Hotel: another San Antonio classic on the Alamo battlefield
• Haunted hotels in Texas
• Haunted hotels in Austin

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the hotel’s own website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as guests, staff and local historians tell them. Read how we rate haunted hotels.

• SFA Centennial Celebration (Sonesta, official)
• Stephen F. Austin Hotel historical marker (HMdb, Texas Historical Commission text)
• Stephen F. Austin Hotel (Guide to Austin Architecture)
• Royal Sonesta hotel celebrates 100 years (Community Impact, 2024)
• The Haunted Royal Sonesta Hotel (Ghost City Tours)
• Walking Tours of Austin announces new stop at the Stephen F. Austin Royal Sonesta (TourATX)
• Downtown Austin Alliance: Spooky Austin, haunted downtown
• The Stephen F Austin Royal Sonesta Hotel (Expedia listing: rooms, pet policy)

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