Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co.est. 1899 · San Antonio, Texas

Greater San Antonio — City of Destiny and Of Your Destination (1918 booster volume)

Higher Publicity League of Texas, San Antonio · 1918 · Higher Publicity League of Texas, San Antonio (E. A. Luck, Director of Publicity; 319 St. Mary's St.)

Greater San Antonio The City of Destiny and Of Your Destination promotional volume (Higher Publicity League of Texas, 1918)

Cover image: extracted from page 1 of the Internet Archive PDF (assets/pdfs/c1915-greater-san-antonio-city-of-destiny.pdf) — physical-copy cover capture pending. The PDF filename retains the original c1915- curator-estimate prefix; the in-volume copyright page (PDF page 2) confirms the actual copyright date is March 1918.

Bibliographic detail

Physical description

150-page promotional volume in the WWI-era booster-press style. Original physical copy: format and binding TBD — verify in-hand. Condition: unknown per the accession register. The digital surrogate from the Internet Archive is the immediately readable working version; the physical copy is held for primary-source authentication.

Provenance

Physically in-hand prior to formal library accessioning; registered to the library 2026-05-24 under the TODO-26 buildout. Accessioned as HH-BOOK-2026-0008. PDF added to the resources/ track separately at an earlier date.

Why it matters

This is a WWI-era booster volume from the second decade of Hoffmann-Hayman’s operation. The March 1918 copyright places it ~6 years after the Feb 1912 charter and ~2 years into the 307 N. Medina plant occupancy (1916–1923, the second documented address). By 1918 H&H is a mid-decade going concern operating under WWI commercial conditions (wartime sugar restrictions, food administration controls, advertising and labelling shifts that would affect any coffee operation of the period).

Potentially high-value, pending verification by direct read. No KB pages currently cite Greater San Antonio, but the resource type is exactly the kind of period directory/booster volume where 1918-era H&H mentions might surface. Specifically worth checking:

  1. Industrial-section directory listings. If the book includes a list of San Antonio manufacturers as of 1918, the chartered Hoffmann-Hayman Coffee Co. is the strong candidate — Hayman as senior partner would be a six-year-established firm by publication. The 1899–1912 William R. Hoffmann predecessor is no longer current. Period naming was inconsistent — try “Hoffmann,” “Hayman,” “Coffee” entries.
  2. Address verification. A 1918 booster volume would document H&H at 307 N. Medina (mid-occupancy of 1916–1923) and could establish boundaries on the move sequence to 331 Burnett that follows.
  3. Photographs. Booster-press volumes often included downtown streetscape photographs that could capture H&H signage or buildings — the WWI-era timing makes any captured imagery especially valuable, as period H&H photographic evidence is thin between 1916 and the early 1920s.
  4. E. A. Luck / Higher Publicity League cross-references. The 319 St. Mary’s Street publisher address and Luck’s “Director of Publicity” role situate this volume within a wider SA promotional-press network that may have produced other H&H-relevant materials worth tracing.

Resolved open question: the previous c.1915 curator estimate has been corrected to 1918 via the Internet Archive PDF’s page-2 colophon (copyright applied March 1918 by E. A. Luck; LoC deposit stamp “MAY -1 1918”). The earlier “1912–1916 window” framing of this volume’s H&H relevance no longer applies — see updated framing above.

Notable contents

Open questions