Austinites eat Christmas dinner at the Driskill

by Bartee Hailie

 

Citizens of the capital city with the cash and connections ate Christmas dinner at the brand-new Driskill Hotel on Dec. 25, 1886. Even though the population had more than doubled over the past dozen or so years, less than 15,000 people lived in Austin in the early 1880’s. Yet despite its size and inconvenient location on the western frontier, the seat of Lone Star State government attracted a disproportionately large number of visitors.