University of Texas Tower (Downtown Austin)

"Visitors to the Main Building clock tower on the University of Texas campus in Austin who know nothing of its history might well wonder why it has security on par with that of a regional airport. People wishing to enter the tower must do so as part of an organized tour and are cautioned that after doing so they cannot leave before it is over. The hallway leading to the tower elevators is guarded by two armed police officers and a metal detector, and before going through it purses, backpacks, and the like must be checked with tour staff. When visitors exit the elevator on the 27th floor they will see yet another policeman and, when they walk up to the 30th floor and the observation deck, discover yet another one on duty there. The open areas of the observation deck itself is completely enclosed in metal caging with spaces just wide enough to slip a camera through. What is perhaps just as interesting as these stringent measures is that absolutely no reference to them is made at any point during the 50-minute tour. They are based, however, on terrible events that have occurred at the 307-foot-tall tower since it was completed in 1937 and these, and possibly the spirits of the disturbed individuals who perpetrated them, haunt the UT campus to this day." 

That is the opening paragraph to my chapter on the University of Texas Tower in Austin! I actually included a chapter on this infamous structure in my Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State. Below left, an image of the building taken around 1980 by photographer Larry D. Moore; below center, Charles Joseph Whitman, who used the tower as the platform for a bloody rampage; below right, a view of the tower's observation deck as it appears today. 

University of the Incarnate Word (Alamo Heights/Midtown San Antonio)

"Founded in 1881 by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word as a school for young women, the University of the Incarnate Word is one of the three oldest institutions of higher education in the city of San Antonio. It should thus come as no surprise that it is also one of the most haunted and that at least three of its buildings are believed to be inhabited by the spirits of those who have lived on the campus in years past. Beyond merely being haunted, however, some parts of the university feel almost mystical, from the resting place of nuns who lived out their lives there, to a holy grotto modeled after one of the most sacred in Europe, to the very headwaters of the San Antonio River." 

That is the first paragraph of my chapter on the University of the Incarnate Word for Ghosthunting San Antonio, Austin, and Texas Hill Country! This is a fascinating site that has many spiritually active locations within it, from ancient springs to the estate that is the namesake of the Alamo Heights neighborhood. 

 

 

Top left: Lourdes Grotto. Top right: Brackenridge Villa. Center: Bishop Claude M. Dubuis Residence Hall. Bottom left: The Blue Hole, headwaters of the San Antonio River. Bottom right: Incarnate Word Cemetery.