Menger Hotel

02 August 1908: The Menger Hotel was built in 1859 by William and Mary Menger for guests of their Western Brewery located behind the hotel.

12 November 2025: 1. The Menger Hotel, 204 Alamo Plaza; 2. The San Antonio Marriott Rivercenter on the River Walk, 38 stories, 101 Bowie St, San Antonio, TX 78205.

Postmarked:    2 August 1908; San Antonio Tex.
Stamp:    1c Green Benjamin Franklin #300 Flag Cancel ¨1¨

To:    Miss Otelia Kraus
    c/ H. Huebner
    Seguin, Texas,

Message:    ¨Otelia´s Shoes¨
    She’ll ask for button ankle high
    And then she’ll want an Oxford tie,
    And then again She´ll change her mind
    And ask the clerk for some other kind.
    A.R.M.
    [front] I am here today but regret very much that are away, I will return again in Sep. A.R.M.

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The identity of A.R.M. cannot be established with the information provided on the postcard, but he hints that he will return again in September. He has found out that she is in Seguin under the care of H. Huebner, so Otelia´s father trusted him enough to provide a forwarding address. Huebner was a sadler, a person who deals in leather goods for horses, primarily saddles, bridles, and harnesses. 

Otelia Kraus (1891-1948) was the daughter of Otto William Kraus (1866-1940), proprietor of a retail shoe store in downtown San Antonio at 441 E. Commerce. Regent Shoe Store occupied the ground floor shared with Mme Chambers, hair dresser and manicurist.

​Otelia married Hugo Eickenrodt (1886-1946)