b'Left: A postcard rendering of the Robert Driscoll Hotel, which opened on the block at N. Broadway and Leopard St. in 1942. Above: A menu page from The Morocco Room restaurant at the hotel. Below: Illustration of Leopard in the 1940sWilson Building, White Plaza Hotel and Robert Driscoll Hotel.While Mrs. Sevier was busy managing the La Gloria estate, advancing the causethe region, the Plaza Hotel at the corner of Upper North Broadway and Leopard of preserving Texas historical sites, and organizing and fundraising for Demo- Street on the high bluff. The hotel opened to great fanfare in May 1929, complete cratic politicians, Hal was busy establishing a legacy of his own. Immediatelywith matching penthouse apartments on top for Clara and Robert who, sadly, upon returning to Austin in 1914, he founded the Austin American newspaper,did not get to enjoy his accomplishment for long. After contracting an infection which he edited and published until the U.S. entered World War I in 1917. Thethat resulted in amputations of both legs, Robert Driscoll, Jr., died on July 7, federal Committee on Public Information dispatched Hal to Argentina and Chile,1929, at age 57.where he was in charge of countering German propaganda against the U.S. HeThe Driscoll estate that included cattle ranches, hotels and commercial proper-sold the newspaper in 1919, which later became the Austin American-Statesman. ties, residences and interests in an endless list of business venturesan empire During this period, Claras brother, Robert, Jr., continued to expand the Driscollbuilt by her grandfather and his brother, and grown larger by her brother and empire in Nueces County, serving as president of Corpus Christi National Bankonly sibling, would be left entirely to Clara. She flatly rejected advice from fam-and playing a pivotal role with Mayor Roy Miller in securing federal funding forily lawyers to sell the cattle and the land they grazed, where vast oil and gas the Port of Corpus Christithe most significant development in the history ofdeposits would soon be discovered. the Coastal Bend, up to and including the current day. Amid the citys buildingClara was quoted as telling them, Ill keep the cattle and the land, every foot boom that started with the opening of the port in 1926, Robert attracted a groupof it. We were a small family and very close. The work they started means ev-of San Antonio investors to build the biggest and most magnificent property inerything to me. Her word, started, denoted plans for the Driscoll legacy. 68 THE COASTAL BEND GUIDE TheCoastalBend.com'