Menger Hotel

Landmark San Antonio hotel on Alamo Plaza, immediately adjacent to the Alamo Mission. Founded February 1, 1859 by William A. Menger (1827–1871) and his wife Mary Menger (1816–1887). After William’s death in 1871, Mary ran the hotel as sole proprietor until selling it in 1881. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Ownership chain

Per Tim Draves: “the fact that it wasn’t changed to the ‘Kampmann Hotel’ or ‘Moody Hotel’ demonstrates the good will and market strength established before 1881.”

Architecture

• Original (1859): 2-story, 50-room, cut limestone; classical design. Architect: John M. Fries — SA’s first prominent architect; also designed the original City Market House and Casino Hall (both demolished) and restored the Alamo (1850). A 3-story, 40-room annex was added the same year.
• Kampmann additions: Third story (1881); fourth story to annex on Blum Street (1887); 50-room addition (1899); artesian well, steam laundry, electric lights, steam elevator.
• Alfred Giles renovation (1909): Renaissance-Revival styling — ornamental ground-glass-and-iron marquee, glazed iron canopy, interior rotunda, marble lobby floors, Corinthian columns, filigreed balustrades. See Alfred Giles.
• Moody additions: Four-story, 125-room addition with new lobby and pool (1949); five-story addition (1966); major renovations (1988).

The Menger Bar (1887)

The Menger Bar, off the lobby, was added in 1887 — under Kampmann ownership, after the Menger family had sold the hotel (1881). This matches Nancy Draves’s recollection that “the Roosevelt bar… was built after Mary and William owned the hotel” (8 Nov 2024 interview). The hotel describes it as a Victorian bar built as an exact replica of London’s House of Lords Pub — dark cherry-wood paneling, beveled mirrors, a polished bar. Its fame rests on 1898, when Theodore Roosevelt, with Col. Leonard Wood, used it while recruiting the Rough Riders (the hotel claims 1,250+ men enlisted). Still operating at 204 Alamo Plaza. (Source is the hotel’s own marketing page — treat the “exact replica” and enlistment-count claims as promotional; Raw Sources Registry.)

Brewery, beer trademark, and the acequia

Per Tim Draves (12 June 2026 Draves session):

• Menger beer trademark. The family (“the main group”) holds the trademark on “MENGER BEER” — a lager — and holds no other Menger trademarks. They would license the naming rights: Tim — “we want somebody to brew beer and pay us a dollar for our naming rights.”
• Acequia / brewery water. The Acequia Madre (Alamo Madre) ran from the Alamo (the koi pond there marks the original acequia location) south under the Menger Hotel — large limestone pavers in the rotunda, between the rotunda and the dining room, covered the channel — and continued ~100–150 ft back to the brewery, supplying water for the beer and for cooling (“chilled in the San Antonio River”).

The Menger family link to H&H Coffee

William A. and Mary Menger are the grandparents of the H&H Menger generation — through their daughter Catherine Barbara Menger (1860–1947), who married Dr. Rudolph Menger in 1879. Their children — Minnie, Gus P., R. W., T. J., L. B., and others — staffed H&H from 1912 to 1962.

The hotel connection is genealogical and reputational, not financial. Tim Draves finds no evidence that Menger Hotel prestige translated into capital for the next generation (each child received ~$6,000 cash and a share of ~20 properties from Mary’s 1887 estate — solid but not lavish).

Documented H&H ↔ Menger Hotel intersections:

• 1909-06-06: Hoffmann-Menger marriage notice — the marriage linking William R. Hoffmann to the Menger family
• 1923: Gus R. Menger and L. B. Menger in the SA Light (hotel-side Mengers, distinct from the H&H Mengers by coincidence of surname)

Moody family — Three Rivers Glass connection

The Moody family acquired the Menger Hotel in 1943 under W. L. Moody Jr. (Galveston Moody banking dynasty). His son W. L. Moody III was a co-plaintiff alongside Charles R. Tips in the 1946 $1,350,000 Three Rivers Glass anti-trust suit against Hartford-Empire Co., Ball Bros., and Owens-Illinois — the same Three Rivers Glass Co. that supplied H&H’s Crystalvac jars. The Moody family thus appears in two distinct H&H-adjacent threads: as Menger Hotel owners and as fellow shareholders of the glass supplier destroyed by the patent-pool monopoly. See Three Rivers Glass Company.

Mary Menger’s piano — now in the hotel parlor

A rococo piano once in the hotel’s ladies’ parlor is back at the Menger Hotel today, in the front parlor (on the left, facing the street). Its provenance chain crosses from the hotel side to the H&H coffee side of the Menger families — see Mary Menger § Mary Menger’s piano. Per the 12 June 2026 Draves session.

Notable guests

Theodore Roosevelt (hunting trip; Rough Riders recruitment 1898); Gutzon Borglum (Mt. Rushmore sculptor; maintained studio at hotel); Ulysses S. Grant; Richard King (cattle baron; died at the hotel); Oscar Wilde.

Open questions

• H&H coffee served at the hotel. Even under the no-distinct-wordmark hypothesis, H&H coffee may have been served at the Menger Hotel through the family network. A period menu or breakfast card referencing H&H would document the customer relationship.
• W. L. Moody Jr. acquisition date. The ownership timeline gives 1943; the source for this is Tim Draves (June 2026). Primary records (deed transfer, SA newspaper) would confirm.
• John M. Fries — SA’s first prominent architect; no dedicated KB entry. Worth a stub if further Fries-H&H connections surface.

See also

People

• Alfred Giles — 1909 renovation architect
• Mary Menger — co-founder; sole proprietor 1871–1881
• Menger Family — H&H Menger generation synthesis
• William A. Menger — co-founder
• Catherine Menger — daughter of William and Mary; bridge to H&H

Places

• Alamo Plaza
• UIW Archives — Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word
• Menger Soap Works

Companies

• Three Rivers Glass Company — Moody family co-plaintiff in 1946 anti-trust suit

Brands

• Menger Hotel Coffee (hypothesis)

Artifacts

• The History and Mystery of the Menger Hotel