Pioneer Flour Mills, Mill building in San Antonio, United States

Pioneer Flour Mills is a mill complex on the San Antonio River whose main tower is built of light-colored masonry, not concrete. The tall rectangular tower has a stepped flat top with a raised central parapet bearing the word PIONEER in capital letters, and below it a grid of small square windows runs in vertical columns of five to seven. A shorter round silo block beside it carries the words WHITE WINGS, and lower flat-roofed buildings and dark red brick industrial structures stand around it.

The mill began in the 1850s when Carl Hilmar Guenther moved his small operation from Fredericksburg to the San Antonio River. Over the following decades, his sons joined the business and the wooden mill was eventually replaced with the concrete structure that still stands.

The old mill complex sits close to a house where the founding family once lived and where visitors can now eat meals made with the company's products. Many people come to taste fresh biscuits and waffles while looking out over the river beside the industrial buildings.

Visitors can walk near the river and look up at the old concrete tower and mill walls from the surrounding streets. The site is best viewed during daylight, when the exterior lettering and the shape of the grain elevator are easy to see from different angles.

The grain elevator tower added in 1922 was once the tallest building in San Antonio and remains a visible landmark from much of the city. At night, the top of this old industrial tower is lit up, making the mill stand out against the modern skyline.