The Menger Hotel
Originally uploaded by awilliams
New Images loaded to Flickr.
Ryan, Kain, and I stumbled onto this cool find near the Alamo in San Antonio. My imagination went crazy in here! Kain and Ryan waited patiently for me while I disappeared up stairwells, down long spooky hallways, and back down a cool brass elevator. I half expected a voice to ask me, "Going down?"
Likely home to some ghostly visitors, it's quite old, and appears to have become more lovely with age. On the top floor, where I'm certain I wasn't supposed to venture, I came across a vintage photo from 1859 hanging on the wall (which I uploaded). It wasn't nearly as fancy then. The hotel looks more Victorian today, and has apparently been updated over the course of 130 years.
Some historic info via Wiki:
The Menger Hotel, located in downtown San Antonio, Texas, was built in 1859 (23 years after the fall of the adjacent Alamo) by William Menger. 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, Babe Ruth, Oscar Wilde and others were known to frequent the bar and hotel, which was periodically enlarged and remodelled to accommodate more guests.
The hotel also holds the unofficial title of "The Most Haunted Hotel in Texas." (I knew it!) The Menger claims to host 32 different spirits including Richard King and Sallie White, a maid at the Menger who was murdered by her husband and buried at the hotel's expense.
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