Menger Hotel
The Menger Hotel is a historic hotel located in downtown San Antonio, Texas, USA.
It is located where the Battle of the Alamo happened.
The Menger family
William and Mary Menger opened the Menger hotel in 1859 in San Antonio's Alamo Plaza. 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.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, 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.Civil War period
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 to use to aid in the war effort, and shut down the hotel's guestrooms. 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 and her son Louis William continued to run the hotel and brewery. Mary 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. Mary went about business as usual and made plans to further enlarge the hotel to serve the influx of guests she was receiving. She bought neighboring land in order to add rooms to the hotel. In a one-year period Mary hosted more than 2,000 guests in her hotel, and on one night alone the hotel housed 165 guests.On February 19, 1877, the first 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 Wenger was aware that the building was lacking in modern bathrooms, proper water closets, or room service bells, and made these improvements.
By 1879, Mary had gas equipment installed so the hotel could have its own source for gas lighting. Although Mary and her son Louis maintained the hotel as well as they could, Mary 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 the price of $118,500, which in today's currency would round to $2.8 million.
The Kampmann ownership
Over the hotel's history, there have been different managers and management groups of the Menger Hotel, including Major John Hermann Kampmann, Hermann Kampmann, William Louis Moody Jr, and Hector R. Venegas. Major John Hermann Kampmann managed the hotel from 1881 until 1943. He was the contractor that 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. Most importantly, he made it possible for water to be piped to every room. A laundry was added and, most significantly, private bathrooms contributed to a resurgence of the hotel's popularity, because few hotels offered such extravagances.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. 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. 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." 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. 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. 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.
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 guidebooks. The Great Depression also contributed to the hotel's abandonment for not enough revenue, due to lack of guests, was being made to make the repairs and renovations. The hotel would enter what is known as its "declining elegance" period. The 1930s and 40s were no different for the hotel's improvements so much so that plans to tear it down to build a parking lot were being discussed.
The Moody ownership
The hotel was set to be remodeled in the year 1945, and William Lewis Moody Jr. was seen as being the best person in all of Texas to handle the Menger Hotel. Moody earned a law degree from the University of Virginia in the year 1851 and he arrived in Texas in 1852. Moody founded the National Hotel Corporation in the year 1928, and this Corporation took over the hotel on June 30, 1944. Following his ownership of the hotel, Moody had made plans to include new plumbing, electrical fixtures, new decorations and a complete restoration of the Spanish patio gardens. In addition he wanted to have the floor coverings replaced with carpeting, completely renovate guestrooms and public rooms as well as have the kitchen newly equipped. Moody also had the paintings restored by local artist Ernst Raba, the antique furniture was to be refinished and refurnished, and lastly the Colonial Dining room was to be restored.In 1948 the lobby that J.H. Kampmann had constructed in 1881 and several guestrooms above it were to be 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. On March 2, 1951, Moody was recognized by the San Antonio Conservation Society for his great work in remodeling the Menger and for making it a great landmark in San Antonio. In 1953, a swimming pool became a part of the Menger Hotel. Moody had a long life, and accomplished and succeeded in many areas. There were many other members of the Moody family that were involved with the Menger Hotel, and still are. William Lewis Moody Jr. died in 1954 and passed the rights to the hotel to his oldest daughter Mary Moody Northern.
The upcoming World's Fair in 1968 dubbed the Hemisfair by local San Antonians would have Mary spending $1.5 million on a five-story addition with 110 guestrooms to accommodate the new coming tourists. This new establishment designed by architects Atlee B. Ayres and Robert Ayres, would be named the Motor Hotel which included drive-in convenience and valet parking. In 1977 Mary Moody Northern died and gave ownership to her nephew Robert L. Moody Jr. who would be the new chairman of the Moody Foundation. By 1991 the Hotel Corporation also known as the Gal-Tex Corporation finished its restoration on the 8,000 square feet retail space on the Alamo Plaza side of the hotel. This restoration cost about $9 million. Some of these people include: Colonel William Lewis Moody, Mary Moody Northen, and Robert L. Moody.
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.Ghosts
The hotel holds the unofficial title of "The Most Haunted Hotel in Texas." The Menger claims to host 32 different spirits including Richard King and Sallie White, a maid at the Menger who was murdered by her husband and buried at the hotel's expense.19th-century cuisine
Another popular draw to the hotel 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 Megers 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.Recent ownership
The Menger is currently owned by Galveston, Texas-based 1859 Historic Hotels, Inc.Achievements
The Menger Hotel is a member of Historic Hotels of America, an official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.The Menger Hotel has been recognized by the state of Texas and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.