Menger Hotel

The Menger Hotel in San Antonio is the most haunted hotel in Texas. It was built in 1859 on the site of Menger′s brewery and is haunted by a number of ghosts.

The most often sighted spiritual guest is a woman named Sallie White. Long ago, Sallie was a chambermaid who worked within the hotel and one night after an argument with her husband, she stayed overnight. The next day her husband threatened to kill her and some time later, on March 28, 1876, he attacked her inside the hotel. Badly injured, she held on for two days before dying of her injuries. According to the hotel’s ledgers, it paid for her funeral at a cost of $32.00.

Today, Sallie apparently continues to perform her duties within the Victorian wing of the hotel. Sallie has been seen numerous times wearing an old long gray skirt and a bandana around her forehead, the uniform common during her era. Primarily, appearing at night, Sallie is generally seen walking along the hotel hallways, carrying a load of clean towels for the guests.

Another apparition that is often reported is that of Captain Richard King, one time owner one of the largest ranches in the world – The King Ranch. While visiting the hotel in 1885, he took ill and died. His funeral was held in the Menger Hotel’s parlor. Several hotel guests have seen the ghostly apparition of a man dressed in an old western-style suit, with a string tie, and a broad-brimmed black hat casually walking directly into a closed door. The door that leads into the King Ranch suite.

Another ghostly spirit of a woman is often spotted sitting in the original lobby of the historic hotel. Wearing an old fashioned blue dress, small wire-framed glasses, and a tasseled beret in her hair, she sits quietly knitting. On one occasion a staff member stopped to ask her, “Are you comfortable…may I get you something?”, only to be answered with an unfriendly “No” before the woman disappeared.

Another guest reported emerging from the shower to see an apparition dressed in a buckskin jacket and grey pants, who is busy having a heated conversation with an unseen presence. The entity demands to know; “Are you gonna stay or are you gonna go?” three times before vanishing.

Other entities have been known to “help” in the kitchen area, as various utensils have floated through the air seemingly all by themselves. Utensils are often seen transporting themselves from one area to another without the help of human hands.

Adjacent to the Alamo, some of these ghostly visitors to the hotel are attributed to the many that died during the battle of the Alamo. Often heavy footsteps and kicking are heard and old military boots are spied by the guests and staff.