We Went Ghost Hunting at Round Rock's Stagecoach Inn

Round Rock has plenty of new construction, but some of the best stories in town are in its oldest buildings. So in the spirit of October, a few of us from Jorgenson Real Estate traded our lockbox keys for ghost-hunting gear and spent a Friday night at the Round Rock Stagecoach Inn, one of the oldest surviving buildings in the city.

Before the sun went down, we sat down with two people whose families are part of this building's story: Judy Anderson, president of Round Rock Preservation, and Phebe Davol, one of its directors. Huge thanks to both of them, and to the City of Round Rock for letting us in after dark.

What is the Round Rock Stagecoach Inn?

The Harris Stagecoach Inn was built by J.J. Harris and his wife between 1848 and 1853, from limestone quarried right on site. It sat on the road that later became part of the Chisholm Trail, near the famous round rock in Brushy Creek, and served travelers as a stage stop, an inn and a local post office. Local lore says outlaws like John Wesley Hardin and Sam Bass passed through.

The building is solid. Judy told us it weighs about 100 tons, with walls 18 inches thick, thicker than the 17 to 17½-inch walls on most of the old limestone homes along Chisholm Trail. Inside, it's only about 1,200 square feet, warmed by two fireplaces that were once its only heat. When the railroad reached Round Rock in 1876, stagecoach travel faded, but the inn kept going for well over a century as a family home, a gathering place and, later, a restaurant.

How was the inn saved?

The inn originally stood on a hill along Round Rock Avenue, about 1,000 feet south of where it is today. In 2012, it was in the path of the RM 620 road safety project and slated for demolition. More than 1,200 people signed a petition to save it, the mayor and city council agreed to move it instead, and Round Rock Preservation was founded as a nonprofit in 2016 to raise money for the effort. Judy told us the city paid for the move with hotel occupancy taxes.

The move itself took months of preparation and three days of work. In April 2018, the City of Round Rock moved the original building about 1,000 feet north to 750 Chisholm Trail Road, near the round rock itself. After restoration work that began in 2023, the inn celebrated its grand opening on October 19, 2024. "That's rare," Judy said of the city's decision, and she's right. It's a great example of what this city does well: grow fast without throwing away its history.

Growing up in the Stagecoach Inn

Judy's family history here goes back more than a century. Her great-grandparents owned the inn from 1907 to 1932, and her grandparents owned it from 1941 to 1957. Her memories are from the 1940s, when her father and uncles were serving overseas in World War II and the inn became the family's gathering place. Her mother was one of seven children, so weekends meant cousins, big meals and running around the yard. "Every weekend it was a party," she said. "It was a good time to be a kid." The stone walls around the inn today include rock from the dry-stack wall her grandparents built by hand at the original site.

Phebe's family moved into the inn in 1959, when it was still up on the hill. Her father loved history, which is why he bought it. It was a tight fit for a family of four: her brother slept in the dining room addition, Phebe had the little room, and her parents had what was pretty much the only bedroom. Her mother kept the house until 1972. Phebe's favorite rule from those years? Don't walk on the rock wall, because of the snakes. (They did see snakes. The walls have mortar now. No snakes.)

If you haven't seen the inn in person, it's worth the stop. Pair it with a walk along Brushy Creek and the rest of Round Rock.

Is the Stagecoach Inn haunted?

That depends on who you ask. After Phebe's family moved out, the inn sat empty for a few years and then became a restaurant. The staff had stories: they'd shut off the lights and the sound system at closing and find them running again in the morning, the restroom door would sometimes be locked tight when they came back in, and after the last customers left, some of them saw a figure in a white collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up.

Both women had a guess about who that might be. Phebe's dad always wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled up. So did Judy's grandfather, who died in the inn, as did his younger brother, who came to Round Rock as a teenager in 1908 with their father, a quarry operator, and got sick there. Judy attributes the playful lights and music to the two of them. And whoever it is, we were told, is very friendly.

We brought an electromagnetic field reader, a laser thermometer and, just in case, holy water. The EMF reader lit up. One corner of the room read about 20 degrees colder than another. One member of our crew decided they'd seen enough and headed for the door. And at one point, a figure in white ran past the windows and sent the whole team into a huddle.

Our official verdict: there's an eerie presence at the Stagecoach Inn, and it's beautiful. (Our unofficial verdict involves a certain JRE agent named Mike, a mask, and a very convincing performance. Watch to the end.)

Do you have to disclose a haunted house in Texas?

We get this question every October. Texas law doesn't require sellers or agents to disclose a death on a property from natural causes, suicide, or an accident unrelated to the property's condition, and the state's seller's disclosure doesn't ask about ghosts. Other events, like a death caused by the property's condition, can be a different story, so if you're selling a home with a history, talk it through with your agent. When we asked our agent Gabe on camera about listing a haunted house, the answer came fast: "Any publicity is good publicity."

Visit, support, and keep the stories going

• The Stagecoach Inn story from Round Rock Preservation, including its full list of owners
• Become a member or volunteer with Round Rock Preservation
• Places in Time: The Stagecoach Inn from the City of Round Rock
• Watch the ghost hunt on YouTube
• rrpreservation.org, the best place to start if you want to get involved

Thank you to Judy, Phebe and everyone at Round Rock Preservation for keeping this piece of Round Rock standing, and to the City of Round Rock for sharing it with us. And if you're buying or selling in Round Rock, haunted or not, find your JRE agent. No real estate is too scary for us.