Love Letters, The Driskill Hotel’s Haunted Painting
Richard KingA recreation of Love Letters.
The Driskill Hotel in Austin, Texas has a rich history. Throughout its time in operation, it has hosted presidents, rock stars, and all manner of prominent guests. There are also claims that the Driskill Hotel may have one permanent guest in the form of a ghostly little girl, but it’s not a room she is said to haunt — it’s a painting.
The painting in question is a modern replication of Charles Trevor Garland’s Love Letters, done by Richard King. The painting shows a little girl with a bouquet of flowers in one hand and a love letter in the other.
According to Texas Hill Country, the story goes that in 1887, U.S. Senator Temple Lea Houston’s four-year-old daughter Samantha tragically died at the Driskill Hotel. The young girl had been chasing after a runaway ball when she tripped and fell down the Driskill Hotel’s staircase.
She reportedly looked similar to the girl depicted in the Love Letters painting, leading paranormal enthusiasts to believe that her spirit now inhabits the painting.
Guests who visit the Driskill Hotel have claimed that they witnessed the girl’s expression change when they stare at the painting, or feeling as though the girl’s eyes were watching them move. Some have also reported feeling ill when looking at the painting, or experiencing the strange sensation of being lifted off their feet.
Of course, the girl in the painting is not Samantha Houston, and given that the artwork is a modern recreation of an older piece, it wasn’t actually around during Samantha Houston’s time.
