The Driskill history

More than 1,200 guests attend, including every Texas governor from the last 20 years as well as the descendants of Texas governors since 1890.

Littlefield later purchased the hotel for $106,000 in 1895 and vowed that it would never close again.

He would later sell the hotel in 1903, but his claim would become prophetic; over the next 100 years the Driskill would add a barbershop and woman's spa, host numerous inaugural balls and add another 60 guest rooms.

In 1930, the Maximilian Room was built in the former site of the Men's Parlor and Smoking Room, drawing its name from eight famous Austrian gold-leaf-framed mirrors once belonging to Emperor Maximilian of Mexico and his beautiful wife, Carlotta.

In 1934 an aspiring Texas politician named Lyndon Baines Johnson met his future wife, Lady Bird, for their first date in the Driskill dining room for breakfast, the first moment in a lifelong love affair between the Driskill and the future President and First Lady of the United States.

Happily, in 1970, a Save-the-Driskill community effort raises more than $700,000 and three years later, the Driskill hosted a series of grand re-opening galas.

Braniff International Hotels, Inc., a division of Braniff Airways, Inc., of Dallas, Texas, bought the hotel in 1972 and began a $350,000 restoration of the grand lobby of the historic facility.

Braniff reopened the hotel to customers on January 15, 1973, to very strong bookings and conference business.