The Menger Hotel, located in downtown San Antonio, Texas, was built in 1859 (23 years after the fall of the adjacent Alamo). In 1898, Teddy Roosevelt used the bar to recruit Rough Riders which fought in Cuba in the Spanish-American War. The Menger was San Antonio's most popular hotel in the 19th Century. O. Henry, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Mae West, Oscar Wilde 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 ever was held outside the Menger and orders taken afterwards inside. In 1885, Richard King, the south Texas entrepreneur and founder of the King Ranch, died at the Menger. In 1907, the San Antonio section of the National Council of Jewish Women was organized at the Menger. The hotel also holds the unofficial title of "the most haunted hotel in Texas."
References
- Menger Hotel site
- San Antonio Visitors' Guide
- Historic plaque (Menger Hotel) outside Menger Hotel, erected in 1976, viewed 14 November 2005
- Historic plaque (Barbed Wire Demonstration) outside Menger Hotel, erected in 2000, viewed 14 November 2005
- Historic plaque (San Antonio Section, National Council of Jewish Women) outside Menger Hotel, erected in 2000, viewed 14 November 2005
