The Nutt House Hotel

Posted: 03.20.2025 | Updated: 03.20.2025

Granbury, Texas, is not the most well-known town in Texas. It’s the county seat of Hood, Texas, and is just a short drive away from Dallas. 

However, it does have one notable bit of history behind it. It happens to contain one of the most haunted hotels in all of Texas, the Nutt House Hotel. Despite its humorous name, the ghost stories behind this place are anything but silly.

It’s a tale of three brothers, outlaws, and ghostly ladies who refuse to leave the property.  Keep reading on to find out the history behind these stories and the nature of these ghost sightings. After you’re done, we’re sure you’ll want to learn even more about haunted Dallas. The best way to do that is by booking an in-person ghost tour with us at Dallas Terrors.

Who Haunts the Nutt House Hotel?

This is a complicated question as the Nutt House Hotel is said to have more than just one ghost haunting its halls. However, we’re quite sure that you’re already familiar with two of these rather infamous ghosts that are said to call this hotel home in the afterlife. 

Nutt House Hotel History

The history of the Nutt House Hotel started with two brothers, Jacob and Jesse Lee Nutt. Born to a well-to-do family in Granbury, the two were as thick as thieves growing up, perhaps because they were both blind. However, they didn’t let their disabilities get in the way of their entrepreneurial spirit, and they started their own mercantile store. 

At first, their business took off slowly – to the point where they were selling their goods out of a tent and then a log cabin – and they relied on their sighted brother David to help keep the books and to do other tasks that they couldn’t. 

Eventually, the business grew and the Nutt brothers were able to move their storefront from the log cabin to a beautiful limestone building. In the midst of all of this, David and his wife, Sudie, began developing a curious way to network. They would offer up their house to businessmen passing through Granbury, perhaps as an attempt to gather investors for the mercantile shop or perhaps just as a way to be friendly. 

In any case, these early hostings would pave the way for what would become the Nutt House Hotel. Realizing the potential profits of these businessmen coming and going throughout Granbury, David and Sudie eventually moved their makeshift hotel business into the limestone building on the second floor.  

The hotel was one of Texas’s finest, especially in those days. Its bathrooms looked more like spas, and it had a spiraling grand staircase and ten different luxury suites. The hotel grew to be a local fixture and a historic landmark, even being added to the National Register of Historic Places. After surviving the pandemic in 2020 and a fire in 2023, the Nutt House Hotel is still going strong. 

Hauntings of the Hotel

And, of course, its historic status and unusual name aren’t the only notable thing about the Nutt House Hotel. It’s also known for being haunted, especially by one Mary Lou Watkins. 

Mary Lou Watkins wasn’t a guest who overstayed her welcome – she was actually a former owner. Indeed, she was the granddaughter of David Lee Nutt and managed the hotel from 1967-1983. However, while that might have been the timeline of her official tenure, it is said that she still keeps a watchful eye over the place, even after her death. 

Her spirit is said to linger in the hotel –  always in her signature out-of-date dress – closing doors and shutters when careless workers or guests leave them open. However, not all of her actions are quite so helpful. Sometimes she’ll leave faucets turned on or even slam doors to scare guests or warn them to watch themselves.

She also has a room that’s known informally amongst hotel workers as the Mary Lou Watkins room. This room is especially active with her ghost and sometimes will drop in temperature dramatically when people come to visit it. 

However, it doesn’t seem like Mary Lou Watkins wants for ghostly company because there’s another spirit said to haunt this historic hotel. A young girl named Sally is the second most commonly sighted ghost at the hotel – perhaps a young guest who tragically lost her life before her time. 

Perhaps, she found the hotel a source of comfort for her while wandering around after death because she doesn’t seem to want to leave. Unlike Mary Lou, she’s not a vengeful or strict ghost, as she’s mostly just seen stepping around. Some even say they’ve captured her on video doing it! 

Outlaw Guests 

However, like any good hotel, this one has had more than a few famous guests come through its doors. Unlike other prestigious hotels, though, the two celebrity guests that the Nutt House Hotel opened its doors to weren’t quite famous; they were infamous. 

One notable guest was none other than Presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth. The killer of Lincoln passed through Granbury in its early days and, some say, never quite left. After Booth was shot and killed by Sergeant Boston Corbett, it is said that his spirit began haunting the area he used to frequent, occasionally bothering guests or frightening those from up North. It’s best to leave any clothes from the Union States in your suitcase if you’re around the area he’s said to haunt. 

Jesse James

The other notable ghost who used to be a guest here was the famous outlaw Jesse James (the same one killed by the coward Robert Ford). The town of Granbury has a somewhat different account of what happened to James than contemporary historians, claiming the famous Old West gunslinger lived to be 104 years old and is actually buried in town. 

Their theory has some supporters and many people will make pilgrimages to his rumored grave and leave behind bottles of Jack Daniels or coins in tribute to the revolutionary outlaw. Whether or not he survived, there does seem to be one thing agreed upon by Granbury locals and ghost hunters – that James’ spirit still haunts this area. 

Seen with even more frequency than Booth’s ghost, Jesse James is said to keep a quiet but watchful eye on this town. His ghost mostly keeps to himself, although a couple of people have claimed that he’ll perform a quickdraw of the gun at his hip if he likes you well enough. 

Haunted Dallas 

Unless you’re a quickdraw expert yourself, we recommend keeping your distance from James’ ghost if you happen to find yourself in the area. Although some of the Nutt House Hotel ghosts are friendly, you never know what might happen if you provoke one of those infamous villains. 

If you liked this story and want to learn similar tales, check out our Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. They spotlight other offbeat ghost stories all over the United States. Checking our blog is another good way to stay up-to-date with all the latest ghost stories and haunted spots in Texas.

If you want to explore Dallas ghosts up close, a ghost tour with Dallas Terrors is the best way to do that. Our guides are knowledgeable and enthusiastic and can provide even more information on the area. 

Sources:

• https://nutthousehotel.com/our-story/
• https://www.granbury-texas.com/nutt-house-hotel/
• https://www.hcnews.com/stories/granbury-residents-may-not-be-alone,19008
• https://eu.oklahoman.com/story/lifestyle/2012/10/28/the-ghosts-that-haunt-granbury-texas-are-good-for-tourism/61033448007/