[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 6 (Tuesday, February 1, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 1, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
               THE 135TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MENGER HOTEL

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas [Mr. Gonzalez] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GONZALEZ. Mr. Speaker, it is a happy purpose I have today in 
rising for 5 minutes to honor a great institution in the heart of my 
district in San Antonio, TX, the Menger Hotel.
  Mr. Speaker, this hotel is no ordinary hotel, beginning with the very 
fact that it is located right next to the Alamo, and it was built 23 
years after the fall of the Alamo. But even more than its location, Mr. 
Speaker, the hotel's uniqueness and greatness stems from the fact that 
it has served San Antonians and visitors to San Antonio for 135 
continuous years.
  Mr. Speaker, the hotel was built by German immigrants. A little known 
fact is the great historical importance of this section of Texas to the 
tremendous immigration streams that came from Germany right before, and 
especially after, the revolutions of 1848 in Germany. Another fact, by 
way of parenthesis, is the first Polish settlement in the United States 
was not up here in the Northeast or Northwest. It was 49 miles 
southeast of San Antonio in a place known as Spana Maria. But the 
German settlers came by the old Port of Inola that no longer exists. It 
was wiped out by a hurricane long ago.
  Mr. Speaker, there were very diverse streams. In fact, in 1856 it was 
estimated that San Antonio's population, one-third of it, was German 
immigrants.
  I went to the junior college way back. My gosh, I better not tell my 
colleagues how many years ago, but it is over 55, and it was in the 
building that was constructed about 125 years ago known as the German-
English School, and there are these fine Gothic structures out of 
limestone which has been the favorite building material in that part of 
Texas from the great limestone quarries up in the hills north of San 
Antonio.

                              {time}  1320

  In fact, when I went to the San Antonio Junior College then in the 
middle 1930's, we had one class that was taught by Ms. Cope. That was 
German, and I took it. When I first went to school, I did not know a 
word of English. Spanish was the mother tongue, and I knew German. So 
all I could speak was Spanish and German. Then through the years, 
through disuse, I managed to keep from getting rusty in Spanish but I 
am afraid not in my German.
  So San Antonio became a site that is still historic. In fact, right 
there in the downtown area not far from there, all you have to do is 
drive by it and see these tremendous structures, the old homes of the 
old Deutschvolk, meaning German folk, made out of that limestone 
structure. It is beautiful. It is in the area known now as the King 
Williams area, which is an historic area. But up until World War I it 
was known as Wilhelmstrasse, King William Street, but then it was 
changed with the fervor and the hatred and the fear from the war. Every 
time we go to war we have to demonize somebody, and the Germans did 
become the demons in World War I and World War II. So they changed the 
name from Wilhelmstrasse to King William. You can go by there and see 
it for yourselves, and I hope my colleagues will sooner or later go 
there.
  It was built, as I said, by Wilhelm Menger and his wife, Mary 
Guenther Menger. After Mr. Menger died, the widowed Mrs. Menger ran a 
boarding house in downtown San Antonio, and the fact is that Mr. Menger 
had originally started with a brewery. All of the original breweries 
were really not in Milwaukee, but there were these German breweries in 
San Antonio that came from good old Germany. To this day San Antonio is 
the site of the two last breweries in Texas, Long Star and Pearl. Both 
were founded by German brewmasters. That was later, of course.
  But Mr. Menger had that brewery, and it was out of that history and 
the popularity of that beer that they finally built this limestone 
structure. The original structure is still there partially, but it has 
been modernized, and they have additions where you have all of those 
facilities today. Many Presidents have visited it. Gen. Robert E. Lee 
took his favorite horse, Traveller, and rode it into the lobby of the 
Menger Hotel. Teddy Roosevelt organized the Rough Riders when he stayed 
there at the Menger. We have had about four or five Presidents who 
stayed there.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Volkmer). The time of the gentleman from 
Texas [Mr. Gonzalez] has expired.

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