The Menger Hotel

The Menger Hotel - San Antonio, Texas

After checking into the Menger Hotel, you walk on marble floors, past a lobby set with Victorian style furniture sitting on dark oriental rugs. The prerequisite grand piano sits, its wood polished to a golden glow, inviting a guest to play.

To think the place started in 1859, when William and Mary Menger built a two story, fifty room hotel for their brewery guests is hard to believe. It became so popular a third floor was added.

As you walk down the hall to the elevator, you emerge at a large atrium showing the three floors of the hotel. The vast interior spaces are breathtaking, the gilded light fixtures stand against the gold trimmed columns, which soar to a spectacular stained-glass ceiling with gold and green inlays done in a Renaissance revival style. Potted palms line the walls, with beautiful late eighteenth-century period furniture dotting the way. The transformation from a lodging for brewery guests to grand hotel is courtesy of Major J. H. Kampmann, who bought the hotel in 1881, adding three story additions to the north and east wings, and the famous bar.

Following one of the four walkways leading to a central fountain in the Spanish courtyard, palms and indigenous southwestern shrubbery filling the interior, I kept switching scenes in my head. In one, the vision of men in bright white suits were taking the arms of women in long gay colored dresses, to promenade in the shade. The other scene was of a movie set, filming a flamboyant swashbuckler on location. Zorro jumping from behind one of the palms, foil in hand, to confront a dastardly villain.

The list of notable guests will measure up to any grand hotel’s guest book. This includes the likes of Richard King, founder of the King Ranch, who led the first cattle drives, his ranch covering an area roughly the size of Rhode Island. Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor who designed and worked on Mount Rushmore. The list of presidents includes, in marching order; Ulysses S. Grant, Benjamin Harrison, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower, and Bill Clinton. In the different histories of the hotel, you will read mentions of soldiers such as Robert E. Lee, George Patton, and of course Colonel Leonard Wood and Theodore Roosevelt who recruited the Rough Riders.

There are times I will pick a spot in the lobby of a place like this, on a stylish couch or an oversized arm chair. I’ll sit by the old wall clock, the type with a number of different faces on it, 1 to 12 for normal time, below it another with 1 to 24 for the military minds, maybe it has dials for the month, day, and year, with a display for the current cycle of the moon. Sometimes I’ll sit and enjoy being in the same space other people enjoyed throughout the years; stopping to have a conversation, or rendezvous with a lover, or be on display. It’s the magic these places have, they make you slow down, breath in where you are. Remembering when everything wasn’t about the timetable, when the places you stayed along the way took an equal part to the final destination itself.  

I picture these characters from history moving through the elegant surroundings; exchanging a word on the current events or sitting in a white rocker by a small table near the fountain, reading a newspaper, hoping to catch a cool breeze. Every great hotel presents an era, a chance to time travel. The Menger’s appointments lavish you with a sense of the good life of the late 1800’s.

Make it stand out

Our room was on the third floor, if you look at the photo above, which is the front of the original building, our room was on the third floor to the far right. There was a small balcony with a decoctive patina rod iron railing, under a green and white striped awning, looking out on modern San Antonio.

The room was painted in a sage green, with thick dark wood furniture, including a bureau with a marble top, with a mirror in a heavy dark wooden frame, with delicate scroll work. The bathroom is small by modern standards, but makes up for it with an old fashion pedestal sink and white porcelain fixtures. I have a story about the room, but I’ll save it for later.

Menger restaurant

The Menger’s restaurant is magnificent, another large open space with white columns running its length, dissecting the room into thirds. A dozen or so, gold chandlers are suspended from the ceiling, each holding up six large frosted glass light shades. The tables are elegantly appointed, surrounded by chairs upholstered in blue fabric. I wish I could report on the dining experience, but we ate at the Menger bar.

In comparison to the vast open spaces of the other public rooms in the hotel, the bar is almost cozy. You will find an interior, which appears to be carved out of a single piece of the most beautiful cherrywood; the walls, bar, cabinets, and ceiling. Six tall stools with backs, stand in front of the bar, behind them are a number of heavy tables and chairs.

If you chose to ascend the stairwell to the loft, you will find more tables with a bird’s eye view of the main floor below. Every wall is covered with Rough Rider memorabilia; framed displays of maps, photos of the troop during training, Teddy at his writing desk, all with information explaining what you are looking at.

There is a moose head on the main square pillar in the middle of the room keeping an eye on things, with a drawing of an older Roosevelt under it. Museum type display cases are filled with Teddy Roosevelt paraphernalia; hats, uniforms, swords, pistols, letters, and photos. The bar room is an exact replica of a London’s House of Lords Pub. And in 1898, Colonel Leonard Wood and Teddy Roosevelt set up a table to enlist men into the Rough Riders, on this very spot.

This is of great interest to me, because my grandfather, Joseph Ambrose Golden, was in Cuba with Roosevelt. He was not part of the famous division lead by the future president, but with the 3rd Cavalry, who were on the left of 1st Volunteer Cavalry in the line of battle and participated in the attacks; first on Kettle Hill, then San Juan hill.

Corporal Golden, of K troop, was awarded a pension of ten dollars a month for, “Gun shot wound of the right shoulder and malarial poisoning”. The wound was received on July 1st, 1898 in the battle of San Juan hill. I can’t tell you if he made it to the top of either hill because no other official accounts exist. Grandfather was honorably discharged with remarks stating, “Service honest and faithful.”

Yes. I found the bullet hole, not in my grandfather’s shoulder, but in the bar.

According to the bartender on duty, there are two bullet holes. As the story goes, one of these holes was caused by a shootout between Lieutenant Colonel Roosevelt and a Rough Rider recruit, breaking the glass. She jabbed a thumb back to the beveled mirror, centered between two gorgeous display cabinets behind the bar. A large photo, placed in the center at the top of mirror, shows Teddy in his Rough Rider uniform; ram rod straight, the right gloved hand placed on his belt in a military pose. There is no trace of this shot visible.

The bullet hole I was looking for is still there, marked by straws and is on the left side of the main bar top, also put there by Roosevelt according to my bartender. Let’s face it, a hole is a hole; whether these two holes are legend or myth, only those who were in the place at the time know for sure.

Sitting here, however, the vibrations of the past radiating through time, you can almost feel the lingering jingoistic atmosphere still present. It takes only the smallest spark of imagination to see the place jammed with young men from all over the country, eager to go off to war; drinking, boasting, and singing. All sure they would come home without a scratch, with war stories to tell. The old veterans of the civil war, thirty years earlier, sitting in the loft, looking down and shaking their heads at the boys’ ignorance, yet, maybe seeing themselves in the youthful faces.

With the eagerness those cowboys, college athletes, and social elite, were to prove their worth, the stories are not hard to believe, so I choose to believe the legend.  

I end with the ghosts. The Menger is said to be one of the most haunted buildings in Texas. Tales of hauntings range from rapping sounds on doors, faces seen in mirrors, and apparitions wandering the halls. I’ll quickly review 3 of the more famous encounters I was told about during my stay, before relating my personal experience. I’d like to give proper acknowledgement to; ‘ghostcitytours.com/san-antonio’, and ‘www.hauntedrooms.com/texas/san-antonio/haunted-places’, which I used to fill in some of the details.

Sallie White was a well-liked chambermaid at the hotel. Sallie’s husband, Henry Wheeler, was of a jealous disposition, to the point he threatened to kill her on a number of occasions. On March 28, 1867, he followed through with his threat, shooting his wife, she died 2 days later in one of the 3rd floor rooms of the original hotel. Henry Wheeler was never arrested for the murder and disappeared soon after. I never found it, but somewhere on display is a receipt for what the Menger management paid for her grave, $25.00, and a coffin, $7.00. Sallie’s ghost has been seen throughout the hotel, but especially on the third floor, where she passed. The most common report is seeing Sallie dressed in a Victorian era maid’s outfit carrying towels or sheets. The stories make it sound as if Sallie is a friendly ghost, who still enjoys her job of serving the hotel guests.

Captain Richard King owned one of the largest ranches in the world. King became rich as one of the original cattle barons and absolutely loved the Menger Hotel; to the point of having his own private suite. After being diagnosed with stomach cancer, he moved into his room, writing his will and letters saying goodbye to friends. King died on April 14th, 1885; his funeral was held in the hotel lobby. He has been spotted around the hotel ever since, especially in his old suite, today called the King Ranch suite. Guests have reported all types of paranormal experiences, but most involve the sense of being watched. His ghost has been see entering the room through the wall where the door used to be before it was remodeled. Still others report the sound of footfalls roaming around the room or the sound of shutters opening and closing. The creepiest sighting is a dancing red orb, which is only seen in the captain’s suite or just outside. If your curiosity is aroused, you can rent the room and try to contact the old cowboy, but I’ll pass.

The last apparition is a woman in a blue dress, who has been seen in the original hotel lobby. I was told by a staff member, people see her sitting in a chair, knitting. After being approached and asked if she needed anything, she only answers, ‘No’. When the person walks away and turns back to her, she is gone.

Now, my personal encounter. Let it be known, I’ve never been abducted by aliens, I have not seen big foot, and I have never talked to a dead family member via a Ouija board.

After diner we retired to our room on the third floor and sat on the balcony enjoying the evening, watching the city darken and the nightlife emerge. The next day was a travel day, twelve hours on the road, so it was an early night. The room was cool, the king size bed comfortable, and we were both asleep fairly early. I awoke, as is my normal schedule, about two in the morning to go to the bathroom. When I returned to bed, I smelled a sweet floral scent of a woman’s perfume. The scent you get when someone was just in the room. The perfume was not one my wife owns. So strong was the scent, I checked the hallway, nothing, and as I said, the smell wasn’t from someone passing by our door, but someone who just left the room. I chalked it up to a long day and fell back to sleep.

The next morning, we went down to breakfast in the dining room, a sumptuous buffet, served with good coffee, which I highly recommend. A plate of scrambled eggs with peppers, onions and ham, and a small bowl of fruit on the side, didn’t stand a chance and I used the long travel day ahead to justify a second trip to the buffet for biscuits and gravy, with 3 slices of bacon on the side. When I returned to my seat, my wife said, “I got up in the middle of the night, and there was the strongest perfume I ever smelled. I thought you spilled something.”

After closing my gaping mouth, I explained my experience. No, we hadn’t been drinking and no one put the idea in our minds.

With breakfast done, we checked out, and mentioned our experience to the gentleman at the front desk. “Huh,” he said, “I’ve heard about people smelling cigar smoke in the courtyard.”

“Huh,” I returned. As if, sure, smelling the afterlife was an everyday occurrence. The experience was true. Was Sallie White checking up on the room to insure we were comfortable, or did the woman in blue decide to stop and knit a few rows, or did an old guest visit her favorite room, remembering the best time in her life? I can’t say, but it wouldn’t stop me from staying at the Menger again.

The experience was a joy, I plan on returning someday, if only to have an Old Fashion at the bar.

Lets talk Alamo.

The Alamo

I’ll take a few brief paragraphs to talk about the Alamo. As I said when describing this blog, I find many of these great places are still in existence and doing well because they are near great destinations. The Menger is next to the Alamo Plaza, only a short walk to the Texas landmark. We visited on a hot summer day, and spent about forty-five minutes. I’d have lingered longer, but several attractions were closed due to construction work.

First, we’ll get this out of the way, there is no basement in the Alamo. This myth came from the movie with Paul Reubens, “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure,” which I admit to never seeing. As I’ve been told, the actor asks a tour guide to see the basement. Some people argue, there is a basement, and believe the basement under the gift shop counts. I’ll leave this debate between you and your tour guide.  

The only original sections remaining of the structure are the facade of the church, from the former Franciscan mission and the Long Barracks, advertised as the oldest building in Texas. The city has grown to cover the battlefield, so it’s hard to visualize the epic conflict, there are no walls to imagine Davey Crockett, William Travis, or James Bowie standing shoulder to shoulder defending the parapets, only the double doors set in the center of the church’s front wall remain to put you in touch with the time. There is a diorama on display inside to give you a much better sense of the battlefield’s size back in 1836.

At the Alamo, you’ll view artifacts, maps, and plaques to give you a timeline of events.  There are weapons, clothing, and utensils to present an idea of the times.  You’ll learn about the original construction and how the church became a fort for its fateful role in US history.

Along with, “Don’t shoot until you see the whites of their eyes”, heard at Bunker Hill, and cries of “Remember the Maine”, being shouted on the slope of San Juan Hill, “Remember the Alamo,” rates as one of the great battle cries in American history; synonymous with standing firm against great odds.