The house from Tobe Hooper’s The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has been through a lot of changes over the years, but there are some things that haven’t changed about the old place. Cooking and consumption still take place on the property, but human meat is not on the menu.
Today, the house is now the Grand Central Café and Club Car Bar, situated next to The Antlers Inn in Kingsland, Texas. The café serves more traditional cuisine—breakfast, soup, burgers, etc.—and is situated next to the picturesque Lake Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ), and the house and surrounding area are a beautiful sight. And if Franklin, Sally, and company stopped on the premises looking for gas, they would surely get a much friendlier welcome than they received from the Sawyer family.
The house is one of the most iconic horror movie locations ever, and the real history of the house is just as intriguing as its cinematic past. Find out about the origins of the house, the supernatural occurrences, and why there is still a “buzz” about the place after all these years.
Built in the early 1900s, the Victorian house was originally situated in Williamson County (now Round Rock), roughly 65 miles away from its current location, before being acquired by The Antlers Inn in 1998. Dana Strong (who is currently the bookkeeper but has worked in a variety of roles) has worked at the site for many years. She talks about how the house was moved and its subsequent changes. ‘‘It was transported in six or seven different pieces, because a house this size couldn’t be moved as one. The bar was added four or five years ago along with the outdoor seating, but the rest of it was moved from Round Rock and put back together.”
This Victorian house has been home to Grand Central Café since 2012, and this year it celebrates its 10th anniversary.
The house wasn’t just purchased because it was one of horror’s most iconic settings. As Dana mentions, “It was just a lovely house that they [the then owners] wanted.”
There is a strong railroad theme running through both the restaurant and neighbouring hotel—the restaurant is named after the New York train station, the adjoining bar is entitled Club Car Bar, and during the early 1900s the area was the site of a train depot and track. Despite all these homages to the railroad and its heritage, the restaurant is remembered more for the chain than the train.
Dana explains, “The owners have a railroad theme in this house. They wanted to recreate Grand Central Station, but the train theme doesn’t beat the Chain Saw Massacre because people are just so ‘let me see!’”
The restaurant and hotel are surrounded by Lake Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ), a man-made body of water that stretches 21 miles long. Dana talks with pride about the area, “We have the small peaceful areas around the lakes, and you’re just a short distance from Austin and San Antonio. So we’re in a convenient place, but you still have the country feel.”
Even though the scary scenes depicted in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre were fictional, some other scary events at the house were not. The house has been home to a couple of ghost sightings, something that Dana happily discusses.
“The ghosts in here are real. I was head chef for six years and I would come in about five or six o’clock in the morning to get breakfast ready and the first thing that got me was the sound of little kids running upstairs or just bouncing a ball back and forth to each other. And I was like, ‘Okay, y’all aren’t bothering me; I’m not gonna bother y’all.’”
“But, one day, they were really active—I was facing the oven and I hear this sheet pan paper rustling. I turned around and one sheet after another is coming out like it’s being pulled by someone and they’re just falling to the floor.”
However, Dana had a strong feeling that this was more than her just hearing things or a strong gust of wind. Previously, a psychic had visited the house to see if there was a supernatural presence, and what they discovered allowed Dana to reach out.
“The psychic said that there’s a very friendly spirit here and her name is Julia, and she is happy. So [during the supernatural activity in the kitchen], I said, ‘Julia, I do not have time for you to mess with me this morning, so leave me alone so I can do my job.’ And it quit.” Dana adds, “We have had customers see it, too.”
Julia isn’t the only figure who has made their presence known inside the house.
“Once a customer came in,” Dana recalls, “and Rick, the owner, noticed they had this look on their face, so he looked up to see what they were looking at and there was what looked like a spirit in a long black dress with a veil who came down and disappeared.”
Even though the house has been renovated and relocated, it is still recognisable as the Sawyer family home, and it is easy to place yourself within the key scenes of the film.
And if diners don’t recognise the house based on the layout, a life-size replica of Grandpa sitting upstairs will make them start asking questions. Grandpa even gave Dana a fright when he first arrived.
“I didn’t know someone put him up here, so I came upstairs to get something, and I saw him and oh my word—I about jumped out of my skin.”
The newest addition to the house is the Club Car Bar, which opened in 2017.
The upstairs of the house, where Grandpa lives, was originally the bar, but a new location was needed to handle increasing numbers, so a safer downstairs location was established.
The bar is the most Chain Saw Massacre-themed room in the building. As soon as guests walk into the bar from the restaurant, they would see a life-size Leatherface opposite them.
Behind Leatherface is a mini makeshift shop featuring souvenirs such as t-shirts and shot glasses. “Leatherface Lemonade” is available on the menu, posters decorate the wall, and a cut-out of Leatherface sits on the far side of the bar. However, some visitors still don’t realise where they are. Dana explains, “We get a lot of, ‘Wow, y’all are really into this.’ And I will say, ‘Well, this is where it [The Texas Chain Saw Massacre] was originally filmed.’ ‘What!?’ People are really shocked. It’s a lot of fun, though.”
However, there are plenty of visitors who know how significant the house is, and they don’t just visit for the picturesque surroundings. When asked how many people visit because of the restaurant’s horror history, Dana replies, “A lot. We’ve recently had people from Germany, Australia, and France. It’s that way constantly.” She continues, “One thing we do every several years is have a big screen put outside with seating in the courtyard and they will show the original Chain Saw Massacre.”
Some visitors treat the place as a pilgrimage, stopping quickly to look around and take pictures before visiting another haunted or horror-related location. One potential stop is the filling station where Drayton Sawyer worked. The station is a shrine to the movie and located southeast of Austin, 90 miles away from Grand Central Café.
In December 2021, the house was opened up for the “coolest slumber party ever.” Guests could stay overnight and sleep anywhere they liked in the house and watch any, or all, of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre movies. Visitors were all given a guided tour of the house and were, of course, served a BBQ dinner.
On the wall of the bar are signed and framed pictures of the original cast, who have revisited the house since filming in 1973. Dana explains, “About six years ago the original cast visited as part of a tour with the cast of the remake. That was really neat.”
As Dana explains, fans aren’t the only ones who visit for the Chain Saw Massacre experience. “We have local business that have their conferences and annual meetings here who want to go along with the theme of the house.”
Despite all the models, memorabilia, and gifts in the house and bar, the menu (apart from the drinks) isn’t tied to the movie. In fact, beef or ribs aren’t even the most popular dish, chicken fried steak is. Although Dana implies that it isn’t just animal meat they store, she jokes, “I’ve told people not to look in the walk-in [refrigerator], but it is all real beef.”
Even after all this time, the house is still thriving and is alive and well with a new lease on life. This is much like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre franchise—a new installment of the franchise drops on Netflix on Friday, February 18th, 2022. The new movie sees Leatherface in action several decades after the events of the first movie. While not everything is known about the 2022 movie, Tamika Jones, Scott Drebit, and Jonathan James discuss one of the most anticipated genre films of the year in a recent episode of Corpse Club, and you can take your own road trip to Kingsland, Texas, to visit the house where Hooper, Hansen, Marilyn Burns, and the rest of a very dedicated cast and crew sliced their way into horror history forever.
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Photo Credit: All photos by Brenda Doherty!
James is a life-long horror fan since coming across Halloween on late-night TV, when he was 9 years-old. He was too scared to watch it all the way through, so when things got too scary he changed the channel. When he worked up the courage he would switch back to Halloween. This happened several times. He has previously written for GoreZone magazine in the UK and the Evolution of Horror.
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