As Hotel Ella, the Goodall Wooten House Continues Its Long History With The University

Over the years, West Campus has grown into a jungle of sidewalks and high-rise apartments. But tucked away on Rio Grande sits the three-story, 126-year-old Goodall Wooten House, now operating as Hotel Ella. The Goodall Wooten House has witnessed The University of Texas and the surrounding city change and grow over the decades, with countless weddings, teas, long dinners, and parties taking place within its walls. It’s been a dormitory, a rehabilitation center, and two different hotels. But before all that, it was the home of Goodall and Ella Wooten—a very grand home, to be fair.    

In 1878, Thomas Dudley Wooten, one of the founders of The University of Texas, purchased the land on which Hotel Ella now sits. The house was originally constructed in 1898 and completed in 1900 as a wedding gift for his son, Goodall, and his new wife, Ella. The two moved in shortly after their wedding. A few years later in 1910, Goodall offered Ella a choice.  

“ Ella was offered by her husband, Goodall, one of two things: You can either A. take a trip around the world, or B. you can remodel the home,” says Daniel West, Hotel Ella’s front office manager and its “unofficial historian,” as he puts it. “As the story goes, anyone who knew Ella knows she got exactly what she wanted. And what she wanted was both.”  

Ella oversaw the renovations that made the home the recognizable Greek Revival mansion it is today (and got her trip around the world). She also hired Neiman Marcus to oversee the interior decorating, making it the first home in Austin on which the Dallas-based luxury company worked. That work is still visible—West can point out woodwork and other details in the parlor that Stanley Marcus designed.  

“ Even though this was the Wooten house, it was truly Ella’s, let’s get real,” West says.  

When the house was completed, Ella quickly made the home her own, becoming a fixture of the social scene in Austin, while her husband worked as a physician. She hosted dinners, welcomed guests, and made connections throughout Austin.  

“ Goodall did his stuff, and Ella got to run the house and create this environment that I think a lot of the citizens of Austin enjoyed,” West says. “I just picture how Ella treated having a place like this, how their friends must have felt coming in, and it must have just felt like family.”  

But she wasn’t only a socialite—Ella was an accomplished woman herself. She was one of the first women to attend The University of Texas. During both World Wars, Ella organized and led Red Cross relief work in Austin, chairing the surgical dressings committee and logging more than 8,000 volunteer hours. She became the first woman to serve on the Austin Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and served on the board for Brackenridge Hospital. And her gardens at the Goodall Wooten House became famous. An avid horticulturalist, she is widely credited for bringing the azalea flower to Austin.  

After Goodall died in 1942, Ella sold the Goodall Wooten House in 1944, moving into the Driskill Hotel in Downtown Austin, then later the Commodore Perry, where she died in 1972. The home then became student housing, then a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center, then a hotel called the Mansion at Judges’ Hill. After another renovation, it opened as Hotel Ella in October 2013, coinciding with Goodall and Ella’s 116th wedding anniversary.  

The 47-room hotel includes nine rooms in the original mansion and 38 in its North Wing, which was built in the 1980s. Ella’s beloved lawn now hosts weddings, a pool beckons to those looking to cool off in the Texas heat, and there’s a bar and renowned restaurant called Goodall’s situated off the main lobby. Guests and visitors will notice the details that Ella loved about her home, as well as photos of Goodall and Ella.  

“ So much of this building is original—down to the doorknobs, the windows, the locks, and the French doors,” West says. “You can feel the history in that.”  

From the beginning, the Goodall Wooten House has been directly tied to the University. That connection has endured, even past its time as student housing. Now, West says Hotel Ella hosts speakers and visiting professors across the different colleges, “fancy tailgates” during football season, a mother-daughter sorority tea, and parents and grandparents and families visiting students.  

West’s favorite time of year is when students are moving into apartments and dorms, and West Campus becomes a hub of activity. Oftentimes, it’s been an opportunity for former residents or visitors to return to the Goodall Wooten House.  

“ For people to come back and drop their kids or grandkids off at college is always exciting,” West says. “They come and stay here and go, ‘Wow, I haven’t been here since the ’70s,’ and they remember this being their room. To learn that history from them has always been really cool.”  

In Austin, a city that has exploded over the past few years, with new hotels and skyscrapers popping up all the time, Hotel Ella is a bit of an “oddball,” West says. It’s not the biggest hotel, and it doesn’t have the modern feel of some of Austin’s other sought-after stays, but it has the benefit of being a historic place with a historic feel in a city that constantly feels shiny and new.  

“ I think people enjoy the history, peace, and tranquility they find here at the property,” West says. “For us, it’s just the wonderful experience to cultivate those opportunities.”  

What West and the staff hope everyone experiences at Hotel Ella is being able to step back in time, even for a second—and maybe even feel like a guest whom Ella may have brought into her own home. Those details and that feeling never get old.  

“ I get to go through the original 125-year-old doors, hang out under the original pecan tree where Ella shared so many memories with her family, and look at life through Ella’s eyes,” West says. “Whether you’re here for a short amount of time or a long time, or even work here, you get to experience that.”  

CREDIT: Private Collection of T.B. Willis in partnership with The Portal to Texas History, a digital repository hosted by the University of North Texas; Hotel Ella