Menger Hotel
Encyclopedia
Downtown San Antonio
Downtown San Antonio is the central business district of San Antonio, Texas, United States.Downtown is encircled by three numerical freeways, I-35, I-37, and I-10...
San Antonio, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.
History
The hotel was built beginning in 1858 by German immigrant William Menger, as an expansion of his boarding house business and adjunct to his brewery. Immediately successful, a 40-room extension was started before the initial building was completed in January 1859, 23 years after the fall of the adjacent AlamoAlamo Mission in San Antonio
The Alamo, originally known as Mission San Antonio de Valero, is a former Roman Catholic mission and fortress compound, site of the Battle of the Alamo in 1836, and now a museum, in San Antonio, Texas....
. By the 1870s, the Menger was the best-known hotel in the southwest. The hotel is mentioned in several times in the works of O Henry, and hosted Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America...
in 1880. It hosted Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
at least 3 times, most notably in 1898 when he used the bar to recruit Rough Riders
Rough Riders
The Rough Riders is the name bestowed on the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry, one of three such regiments raised in 1898 for the Spanish-American War and the only one of the three to see action. The United States Army was weakened and left with little manpower after the American Civil War...
, who fought in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
in the Spanish-American War
Spanish-American War
The Spanish–American War was a conflict in 1898 between Spain and the United States, effectively the result of American intervention in the ongoing Cuban War of Independence...
.
The Menger was San Antonio's most popular hotel throughout the 19th Century. Other notable guests have included Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
, Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
, Mae West
Mae West
Mae West was an American actress, playwright, screenwriter and sex symbol whose entertainment career spanned seven decades....
, Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth
George Herman Ruth, Jr. , best known as "Babe" Ruth and nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Sultan of Swat", was an American Major League baseball player from 1914–1935...
, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
, Lillie Langtry
Lillie Langtry
Lillie Langtry , usually spelled Lily Langtry when she was in the U.S., born Emilie Charlotte Le Breton, was a British actress born on the island of Jersey...
and others were known to frequent the bar and hotel, which was periodically enlarged and remodelled to accommodate more guests.
In 1876, the first public demonstration of barbed wire
Barbed wire
Barbed wire, also known as barb wire , is a type of fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strand. It is used to construct inexpensive fences and is used atop walls surrounding secured property...
ever was held outside the Menger and orders taken afterwards inside. In 1885, Richard King
Richard King (Texas)
Richard King was a riverboat captain, entrepreneur, and most notably, the founder of the King Ranch in South Texas, which at the time of his death in 1885 encompassed over 600,000 acres .-Early years:Born in New York City into a poor Irish family, King was indentured as an apprentice to a jeweler...
, the south Texas entrepreneur and founder of the King Ranch
King Ranch
King Ranch, located in south Texas between Corpus Christi and Brownsville, is one of the world's largest ranches. The ranch, founded in 1853 by Captain Richard King and Gideon K. Lewis, includes portions of six Texas counties, including most of Kleberg County and much of Kenedy County, with...
, died at the Menger. In 1907, the San Antonio section of the National Council of Jewish Women
National Council of Jewish Women
The National Council of Jewish Women defines itself as a grassroots organization of volunteers and advocates who turn progressive ideals into action...
was organized at the Menger.
In the late 1920s the hotel was acquired by Galveston
Galveston, Texas
Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...
banker and insurance man, William Lewis Moody, Jr.
William Lewis Moody, Jr.
William Lewis Moody Jr. was an American financier and entrepreneur from Galveston, Texas, who founded a private bank, an insurance company, and one of the largest charitable foundations in the United States. Moody was active in the day-to-day operations of his companies until two days before his...
, who added it to his portfolio of hotels under the National Hotel Company.
The hotel also 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.
The Menger is currently owned by Galveston, Texas
Galveston, Texas
Galveston is a coastal city located on Galveston Island in the U.S. state of Texas. , the city had a total population of 47,743 within an area of...
-based 1859 Historic Hotels, Inc.