Menger Hotel, Historic hotel in Alamo Plaza, San Antonio, US

The Menger Hotel is a two-story, 50-room hotel built in 1859 on the site of the Battle of the Alamo in downtown San Antonio. Its cream facade carries the name "MENGER HOTEL" beneath a triangular pediment, with balconies and green-and-white striped awnings above a red-tiled roof, three arched openings and a green iron balcony. A long dark-green canopy on columns with globe lamps runs above the street-level doors, and inside, a tall lobby has patterned tile floors, white columns with carved capitals and a pierced balcony railing.

William and Mary Menger opened the hotel in February 1859, after the popularity of William's Menger Brewery, which he had started in 1855 on the Alamo battle-grounds. The two-story, 50-room building was designed by architect John M. Fries with contractor J. H. Kampmann. The Mengers sold it to Kampmann on November 7, 1881, for $118,500; in 1887 his son Hermann added the Menger Bar, modeled on the House of Lords club bar in England.

The Menger Bar, added in 1887, was modelled on the House of Lords club bar in England after Hermann Kampmann sent an architect to study it. Its mahogany tables and chairs, large mirrors and crystal and sterling silver drew local citizens and celebrities; Teddy Roosevelt drank and recruited his Rough Riders there.

The hotel stands on Alamo Plaza, facing the Alamo Mission across the square, with the Chisholm Trail marker in the courtyard. The Menger Bar and lobby are open to non-guests, so walk in from the street-level canopy on Alamo Plaza to see the tiled lobby and carved woodwork.

In 1898, Theodore Roosevelt recruited volunteers for his cavalry regiment, known as the Rough Riders, in the bar room. The bar was a popular meeting spot for ranchers and military personnel from across the region at that time.