William and Mary Menger opened the Menger hotel in 1859 in what is now San Antonio's Alamo Plaza Historic District, which includes the Alamo Mission. The plans for the hotel arose through the popularity of William Menger's brewery. The Mengers sold the property in 1881 to the Kampmann family. William Menger had emigrated from Germany to America in 1847. Menger settled in San Antonio and resumed his previous trade as a cooper and brewer. With his German roots Menger brought beer to San Antonio. He opened the Menger Brewery in 1855 on the battle-grounds of the Alamo (now known as the Alamo Plaza).
Construction
In 1858 the Mengers hired an architect, John M. Fries, along with a contractor, J. H. Kampmann, to complete the two-story, 50-room hotel in San Antonio, Texas,[2] which became a stopping point on the Chisholm Trail where cattle drovers could replenish their supplies while cattlemen sold and bought their livestock. Up until this time most accommodations in San Antonio were boarding houses, and there were few breweries. The Menger Hotel, opened in February 1859, served as a meeting place for cattle barons and was an immediate success; many cattle business transactions were made over the years in the hotel lobby. A marker in the present-day hotel courtyard commemorates the Chisholm Trail.[3][4]
Civil War period
Menger Hotel (1865)
With the beginning of the American Civil War, a large number of Confederate soldiers were stationed at San Antonio, creating a need for more boarding houses to house them. The Menger family put the building in use to aid the Confederate war effort, and shut down the hotel's guestrooms.[5] They kept the dining room open to feed military personnel, and offered space for the care of wounded soldiers. Once the war ended the hotel resumed full operations.
Death of William Menger
After a little over a decade of running the Menger Hotel, William Menger died in 1871. However, Mary Menger and her son Louis William continued to run the hotel and brewery. She quickly ran an announcement in the local newspaper that she would carry on the business and her husband's death "would cause no change in affairs" within the hotel or brewery. She carried on business as usual and bought neighboring land on which to build new rooms to serve the influx of guests. In a one-year period she hosted more than 2,000 guests.
On February 19, 1877, the first passenger train steamed into San Antonio, which further contributed to the growing success of the hotel. This allowed for a higher volume of travelers through the city and promoted the growth of the Alamo Plaza, which became the location of San Antonio's first federal post office, opened in 1877. The hotel offered a mail chute on each floor for guests to use—outgoing mail was collected and taken to the post office. Mary Menger was aware that the building was lacking in modern bathrooms, proper water closets, or room service bells, and made these improvements.
By 1879, Menger had gas lighting installed.[6] Although she and her son Louis maintained the hotel as well as they could, she was getting too old to manage the business and her son was not interested in taking over. Thus the decision was made to sell the hotel to its original contractor, Major J. H. Kampmann. It was sold on November 7, 1881, for $118,500.[7]
Kampmann ownership
Menger Hotel (1897)The Victorian Lobby's stained glass ceiling in 2019.
Over the hotel's history, there have been different managers and management groups of the Menger Hotel, including Major John Hermann (J.H) Kampmann, Hermann Kampmann, William Louis Moody Jr, and Hector R. Venegas. Major John Hermann (J.H) Kampmann managed the hotel from 1881 until 1943. He was the contractor who was hired in 1858 to build the hotel. During those years, he made various necessary changes to the hotel's structure. Kampmann was a builder and architect, credited with building the original Menger Hotel. Having acquired possession, Kampmann added stories and more contemporary additions to the hotel building. In response to criticism in local newspapers of the hotel's lack of amenities, Kampmann immediately began to remodel it. Soon an east wing was added, the kitchen was relocated, another lobby was added and the dining room was expanded to accommodate 160 people.[8] The renovation added a laundry and brought piped water to every room, allowing private bathrooms, which contributed to a resurgence of the hotel's popularity, because few hotels offered such at the time.
Major Kampmann, much like William Menger, had wanted to provide an establishment that allowed travelers to stay in a hotel that delivered premium service. As documented in an 1885 survey, guests had access to a well-appointed bar room, billiard hall, and barbershop which were connected to the hotel.[6] J.H. Kampmann eventually retired, leaving ownership of the hotel to his son Hermann Kampmann. J.H. was in Colorado Springs when he died on September 6, 1885, at age sixty-six. Like his grandfather and father, William Menger and J.H. Kampmann, Hermann Kampmann had a significant part in the hotel's management. Son of J.H. Kampmann, Hermann was a shrewd businessman whose business practices made him one of the wealthiest people in San Antonio.[9] His father had previously made many renovations to the hotel, but Hermann felt that more additions and restorations should be made. He reportedly arranged for an architect to study the House of Lords club bar in England to create a facsimile in the hotel, and in 1887, a new saloon was added. This bar was patronized by local citizens as well as celebrities. The Menger Bar, as it is called, had "ornate mahogany tables and chairs... large mirrors... fine crystal and sterling silver."[2]Teddy Roosevelt drank and recruited his Rough Riders there. Additionally, Hermann added a fourth floor to the Blum Street side of the hotel. The ever-growing demand for rooms became the hotel's most pressuring need. Besides the creation of the bar and an additional story added to the building, Hermann also brought the latest technology to the hotel, including a steam elevator and laundries, electric lights and an artesian well.[8] Also around this time, a reading area was also added, where a number of early writers and chroniclers of life in the Southwestern United States who stayed at the Menger wrote and worked. By 1897 Kampmann had the kitchen remodeled once again, and included new furnishings and fixtures in the dining room.
As business began to flourish Hermann found it difficult to manage it, and turned over active management to J.W. McClean and J.H. Mudge, but retained the final say in major decisions. He died in 1902 in a horse and buggy accident.[10] Ownership of the hotel was passed to all of the Kampmann family as there was no individual family member who wanted to take over. Although they were not interested in the hotel business they attempted to renovate the hotel in 1909 by contracting architect Alfred Giles. He was to replace the front wall with a French facade, add marble floor to the lobby, construct an arched opening from the lobby to the patio, create a patterned tile floor in the Victorian lobby and lastly create corinthian columns to the oval shaped lobby. All of these additions made the Menger Hotel the most elegant in San Antonio which was crucial to its success for new hotels were now opening around the area such as the Crockett Hotel and Gunter Hotel. In 1912, the Kampmann family employed architect Atlee B. Ayres to renovate the dining room and add 30 guestrooms.[11]
After World War I the family could no longer provide for the hotel to host large social events and by 1929 the hotel had been so neglected that it was removed from the state guidebooks. The Great Depression also contributed to the hotel's abandonment; because few people were taking rooms, there was a lack of revenue to make needed repairs and renovations, and the hotel entered its period of so-called "declining elegance". Times were difficult for the hotel as well during World War II, so much so that plans to tear it down and replace it with a parking lot were discussed.[12]
Moody ownership
Another view of the Menger Hotel (2012)
William Lewis Moody Jr. bought the Menger Hotel in 1943,[13] and on June 30, 1944, the National Hotel Corporation, which he had founded in 1928, took possession. Under his supervision, a complete restoration of the hotel began in 1945 after World War II ended, and by 1948, new plumbing, electrical fixtures, and building decorations had been installed and the Spanish patio gardens restored as well. The floor coverings were replaced with carpeting, guestrooms and public rooms were renovated, and $100,000 was spent on equipping a new kitchen. Moody also had the various artworks on the property restored by local artist Ernst Raba, the antique furniture was refinished and reupholstered, and lastly the colonial dining room was restored.[12]
After all this restoration work was completed, the lobby that J.H. Kampmann had constructed in 1881 and several guestrooms above it were torn down and replaced with a new lobby and 3 floors of air-conditioned guestrooms above. In all of his plans to renovate the hotel Moody had decided to leave the original portion that William Menger had built.[2] On March 2, 1951, Moody was recognized by the San Antonio Conservation Society for his work in remodeling the Menger and for making it a landmark in San Antonio. In 1953, a swimming pool was added to the property. Moody died at age eighty-nine in 1954, when ownership of the hotel passed to his oldest daughter Mary Moody Northen. Many other members of the Moody family were involved with operations of the Menger Hotel, and still are.
The upcoming World's Fair of 1968, dubbed the Hemisfair by local San Antonians, motivated Mary Moody Northen to spend $1.5 million on a five-story addition with 110 guestrooms to accommodate the expected tourists. This new establishment, designed by architects Atlee B. Ayres and Robert Ayres, was named the Motor Hotel, which included drive-in convenience and valet parking. In 1986 Mary Moody Northen died and ownership of the hotel passed to her nephew Robert L. Moody Jr. who became the new chairman of the Moody Foundation. By 1991 the Hotel Corporation, also known as the Gal-Tex Corporation, finished restoration of the 8,000 square feet retail space on the Alamo Plaza side of the hotel, at a cost of about $9 million.[13]
Famous guests
Over its history the Menger Hotel has been the scene for many important events, and has had many famous guests. The list of guests includes Presidents: Ulysses Grant, Benjamin Harrison, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, William H. Taft, William McKinley, Harry Truman, Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Lyndon Johnson, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton; military figures, including Sam Houston, Robert E. Lee and William Hood Simpson; and other public figures, including Oscar Wilde.[14]
19th-century cuisine
Another popular draw to the hotel during its early years was the cuisine offered by Mary Menger herself. She had long prepared meals for her guests at her boarding house and felt that doing so at the Menger Hotel as well would strengthen its appeal. Menger devised a menu for the guests that included a selection of soups, beef, pasta, veal, and a variety of desserts, all served at a single sitting. The Mengers purchased the highest-quality beef, chicken, country butter and eggs they could find at local markets, and sent out a wagon with benches that would drive around town picking up businessmen to take them to the hotel to dine. Mary Menger was also known for throwing lavish dinner parties for celebrity guests. Many of her recipes are still offered today in the hotel's Colonial Dining Room, and the mango ice cream is still popular with guests.
Historical recognition
The Menger Hotel has been recognized by the state of Texas and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976. It is a member of Historic Hotels of America, an official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.[15] The Menger Hotel is currently owned by Galveston-based 1859 Historic Hotels, Inc.,[16] which also owns the 1909-built Crockett Hotel across the street, also adjacent to The Alamo complex.[17]
"A Guide to the Menger Hotel (San Antonio, Tex.) Register, 1874." A Guide to the Menger Hotel (San Antonio, Tex.) Register, 1874. Accessed November 7, 2015.
Alexander, Thomas E., and Dan K. Utley. Faded Glory: A Century of Forgotten Military Sites in Texas, Then and Now. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2012. Google Books.
Brookins, Julia. "William Achatius Menger." In Immigrant Entrepreneurship: German-American Business Biographies, 1720 to the Present, vol.2, edited by William J. Hausman. German Historical Institute. Last modified May 21, 2013. Accessed December 3, 2015. http://immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=29
Historic plaque (Menger Hotel) outside Menger Hotel, erected in 1976, viewed 14 November 2005
Historic plaque (Barbed Wire Demonstration) outside Menger Hotel, erected in 2000, viewed 14 November 2005
Historic plaque (San Antonio Section, National Council of Jewish Women) outside Menger Hotel, erected in 2000, viewed 14 November 2005
Johnson, Linda. Historic Texas Hotels and Country Inns. Burnet, Tex.: Eakin Press, 1982
Jordan, Terry G. "GERMANS." Handbook of Texas Online. Uploaded on June 15, 2010. Published by the Texas State Historical Association. Accessed October 20, 2015. http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/png02
"Journal of the Life and Culture of San Antonio." Mary Menger. Accessed November 7, 2015.
Strumpf, Franz. San Antonio’s Menger. Abilene Christian University ILL, 1953.
"The First Texas Brewery." The First Texas Brewery. Accessed November 7, 2015
Williams, Docia Schultz. The History and Mystery of The Menger Hotel. Plano: Republic of Texas Press, 2000.
Related Research Articles
The San Antonio Japanese Tea Garden, or Sunken Gardens in Brackenridge Park, San Antonio, Texas, opened in an abandoned limestone rock quarry in the early 20th century. It was known also as Chinese Tea Gardens, Chinese Tea Garden Gate, Chinese Sunken Garden Gate and is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. It is located on the northwestern edge of Brackenridge Park, near the San Antonio Zoo.
The Driskill, a Romanesque-style building completed in 1886, is the oldest operating hotel in Austin, Texas, United States, and one of the best-known hotels in Texas generally. The Driskill was conceived and built by Col. Jesse Driskill, a cattleman who spent his fortune constructing "the finest hotel south of St. Louis".
The Hilton San Francisco Union Square is a skyscraper hotel located several blocks south-west of Union Square in San Francisco, California. Opened in 1964, the 18-story, 1200-room original building was known as a "motel within a hotel", allowing guests to park directly next to their upper-story rooms. Filling an entire city block, it remains one of the tallest structures representing Brutalist architecture, though it has been extensively altered since its construction. A second 46-story tower was added in 1971, while a third smaller 23-story connecting tower was completed in 1987. Renovated in 2017, it is the largest hotel on the West Coast, with 1,921 rooms.
Downtown San Antonio is the central business district of San Antonio, Texas and the urban core of Greater San Antonio, a metropolitan area with nearly 2.5 million people.
Atlee Bernard Ayres was an American architect. He lived in central Texas.
The St. Anthony, a Luxury Collection Hotel, San Antonio is a historic 10-story hotel in downtown San Antonio, Texas, USA. Built in 1909, it was considered one of the most luxurious hotels in the United States and hosted a wide range of film stars, royalty, and other famous guests. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Alamo Plaza Historic District is an historic district of downtown San Antonio in the U.S. state of Texas. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977. It includes the Alamo, which is a separately listed Registered Historic Place and a U.S. National Historic Landmark.
The Dearborn Inn, A Marriott Hotel is a historic hotel in the suburban city of Dearborn, Michigan in Metro Detroit. It opened in 1931 and closed in February 2023 for renovations. It was conceived by Henry Ford, who saw a need for food and accommodations for visitors flying into the nearby Ford Airport, making it one of the first airport hotels. It is located at 20301 Oakwood Boulevard near The Henry Ford and the world headquarters building of Ford Motor Company. Albert Kahn designed the Dearborn Inn in the Georgian architectural style. The Dearborn Inn is owned by Ford Motor Land Development Corporation and managed by Marriott International.
The Blackstone Hotel is the tallest hotel in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, at 268 ft (82 m) tall. Located on the corner of Fifth and Main Streets, it is noted for its Art Deco design with terracotta ornamentation and setbacks on the top floors. The hotel was constructed in 1929 and operated for over 50 years before it sat vacant for nearly 20 years. The Blackstone Hotel guest list is full of notable people including Presidents of the United States: Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Richard M. Nixon. The hotel was also host for a few movie stars such as Bob Hope, Clark Gable, and Elvis Presley. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 2, 1984. The building was restored in the late 1990s and is still in use today as the Courtyard Fort Worth Downtown/Blackstone, although it is still known as the "Blackstone Hotel" to those who live in or have ties to Fort Worth.
The Hipolito F. Garcia Federal Building and United States Courthouse is a historic courthouse, federal office, and post office building located in Downtown San Antonio in Bexar County in the U.S. state of Texas. It was formerly the U.S. Post Office, Federal Office Building and Courthouse. It is the courthouse for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Texas. It holds a prominent location on Alamo Plaza, across from the Alamo. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as San Antonio U.S. Post Office and Courthouse.
Architecture in the American city of San Antonio, Texas comes from a wide variety of sources, but many of the city's buildings reflect Texas' Spanish and Mexican roots; with some influence from French builders, among others. Relatively rapid economic growth since the mid twentieth century has led to a fairly wide variety of contemporary architectural buildings.
The InterContinental New York Barclay Hotel is a hotel at 111 East 48th Street, on Lexington Avenue between 48th and 49th Streets, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The 14-story hotel, operated by IHG Hotels & Resorts, was designed by Cross and Cross in the Colonial style and contains 702 rooms. The Barclay was one of several large hotels developed around Grand Central Terminal as part of Terminal City.
Acequia Madre de Valero is an 18th-century agricultural irrigation canal built by the Spanish and located in the Bexar County city of San Antonio in the U.S. state of Texas. When Martín de Alarcón founded San Antonio for Spain by establishing San Antonio de Valero Mission in 1718, Franciscan priest Antonio de Olivares and the Payaya and Pastia peoples, dug Acequia Madre de Valero by hand. It was vital to the missions to be able to divert and control water from the San Antonio River, in order to grow crops and to supply water to the people in the area. This particular acequia was the beginning of a much wider irrigation system. Acequia Madre de Valero ran from the area currently known as Brackenridge Park southward to what is now Hemisfair and South Alamo Street. Part of it that is not viewable by the public runs beneath the Menger Hotel. The acequia was restored in 1968 and that same year was designated a Recorded Texas Historic Landmark.
The St. Joseph Catholic Church is a Roman Catholic parish church in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio, located at 623 East Commerce Street in downtown San Antonio, Texas, United States. The Gothic Revival house of worship was the fourth Catholic parish in the city.
The Magnolia Hotel is a historic structure located in Seguin, Texas. It was in operation as a hotel as early as 1844. The building had been in poor repair for a number of years and was added to a list of the most endangered historic places in Texas in 2012. In 2013, the structure came under new ownership and was being restored for use as a private residence.
The Old Lone Star Brewery complex is located at 200 West Jones Avenue, downtown San Antonio, county of Bexar, in the U.S. state of Texas. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.
The St. Nicholas Hotel was a 600-room, mid-nineteenth century luxury hotel on Broadway in the neighborhood of SoHo in Manhattan, New York City. It opened on January 6, 1853, and by the end of the year had expanded to 1,000 rooms. The St.Nicholas raised the bar for a new standard of lavish appointments for a luxury hotel. It was the first New York City building to cost over US$1million. The hotel was said to have ended the Astor House's preeminence in New York hostelry.
The Crockett Hotel is a hotel in San Antonio, Texas, which overlooks The Alamo, and is a San Antonio historic landmark itself. It was built by the local Oddfellows' Lodge who occupied a portion of the hotel until they sold it in 1978.
Hot Wells is the site of a cultural historical park in San Antonio, Texas. The park complements Texas' only World Heritage Site—the nearby San Antonio Missions National Historical Park—and the Mission Reach of the San Antonio River Walk. The park is located on the east side of the San Antonio River, directly across South Presa Street from the San Antonio State Hospital, along the tracks of the Southern Pacific Railway and within sight of Mission San José across the river. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish, the land was originally inhabited by Coahuiltecan peoples.
References
↑ Joe R. William; Marie D. Landon (December 10, 1976). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination: Alamo Plaza Historic District"(PDF). Built in 1857 the Menger was originally a two-story limestone building designed by John Fries. Located at the southwest corner of the block the building later ex-panded to a three-story building at this corner. Alfred Giles is responsible for this later design. The west facade of the original building is now a three-story, three -bay structure. The slightly projecting central bay is crowned by a pedi-mented parapet. The first floor contains a central door flanked by two windows, while the second and third floors each contain three round arched openings. The end bays contain two flat arched windows on each floor and these pavilions are capped by a bracketed cornice. Iron balconies extend at the second and third floor levels. Additions to the north and east have been made several times in the 19th and 20th centuries and thehotel now fills the entire block. A lavish three-story space in the Menger lobby, illuminated by a stained glass, leaded skylight, dominates the old part of the hotel. The solid block of hotel buildings is broken in the center by an interior courtyard of walkways through dense tropical foliage. (PDF document also available here. Downloading may be slow..)
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
