DUANE
Duane's take
The way I tell it, I'm drawing straight from the official marker — so here's the story the Texas Historical Commission put on record about the Menger Hotel. Now, if you wanted to find the heart of San Antonio back in 1855, you headed for Main Plaza or Military Plaza, because that's where most local businesses had staked their claim. But a German-born couple named William A.
Menger and Mary Menger had a different idea. They opened a boarding house and brewery right here at this site — a little off the beaten path by the standards of the day. Turns out, people liked what they found.
The boarding house got so popular that William decided to go bigger. In 1859, he replaced it with a two-story stone hotel, erected right at the corner of Blum and Alamo Plaza. William Menger lived to see his hotel become something.
He was born in 1827 and died in 1871, so the years he had were busy ones. After William was gone, it was Mary who kept things going — and more than kept them going. In 1881, Mary Menger sold the hotel to J.H.
Kampmann, the very man who had built the first portion of the structure. There's a certain poetry in that — selling a building back to the hands that first raised it. Now, Kampmann inherited something worth having.
The Menger was already famous for its excellent meals and its beautiful patio garden, and by the latter half of the 19th century it had become San Antonio's most prominent hotel. That kind of reputation draws people, and the people it drew were not exactly ordinary. Cattlemen like Richard King stayed here during the era of the great cattle drives.
General U.S. Grant walked these halls. So did General Robert E.
Lee and General John Pershing. Poet Sidney Lanier checked in. Writer O.
Henry — William Sidney Porter — found his way here too. And performers appearing at the Grand Opera House, located right across the plaza, made the Menger their home between curtain calls. But perhaps no moment in the hotel's long life crackles quite like 1898.
That's the year Theodore Roosevelt came to the Menger and recruited his regiment of Rough Riders — right here — for the Spanish-American War. You think about that: men signing on for war in a hotel famed for its patio garden and fine meals. The hotel kept growing to keep up with its own legend, periodically enlarged and remodeled to accommodate more guests over the years.
In 1943, W.L. Moody, Jr. purchased it. And in 1966 and 1967, the hotel was expanded further still — until it covered the entire block.
From a boarding house and brewery on the edge of town, to a stone hotel, to a full city block of history. The Menger didn't just survive San Antonio's story — for a good long stretch, it was where that story was being made.
What the marker says
William A. (1827-1871) and Mary Menger, both born in Germany, opened a boarding house and brewery at this site in 1855, when most local buinesses were still clustered around Main Plaza and Military Plaza. The popularity of the boarding house led Menger to replace it with a two-story stone hotel erected at the corner of Blum and Alamo Plaza in 1859. Mary Menger sold the Hotel in 1881 to J.H. Kampmann, the builder of the first portion of the structure. Famed for its excellent meals and beautiful patio garden, the Menger was San Antonion's most prominent hotel in the 19th century. It attracted many well-known visitors and was periodically enlarged and remodeled to accommodate more guests. Cattlemen such as Richard King stayed here during the era of the great cattle drives. Other guests included Generals U.S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, and John Pershing; poet Sidney Lanier, writer O. Henry (William Sidney Porter); and performers at the Grand Opera House located across the plaza. Theodore Roosevelt recruited his regiment of "Rough Riders" for the Sapnish-American War at the Menger in 1898. Purchased in 1943 by W.L. Moody, Jr., the hotel was further expanded in 1966-67 to cover the entire block. (1976)