Guenther, Carl Hilmar, House
205 E. Guenther St., San Antonio, TXGuenther's mill was the first steam and water powered mill in San Antonio.
The Carl Hilmar Guenther House, built in 1859 with later additions dating to about 1880 and most notably 1915, was the home of a successful San Antonio businessman and his family. Founder of C.H. Guenther and Sons, a flour producer now called Pioneer Flour Mills, Guenther built San Antonio's first steam and water powered mill in 1859. The Guenther House is one of eight dwellings that members of C.H. Guenther and Sons built at the intersection of King William and Ewell (now Guenther) streets. Now used as a museum of milling history, a museum store and a restaurant, the building design retains its historic fabric and rich details. The house meets Criterion C for its regional vernacular construction blended with Arts and Crafts styling.
Carl Hilmar Guenther (1825-1902) came to the United States in 1848, first to Wisconsin and then to Texas in 1851. The son of a prosperous merchant in Weissenfels (now in Germany), Guenther was a trained cabinet maker, stone mason and millwright. He wrote to his family, "I want buy some land along some river here near San Antonio, and build a mill." He purchased land on Live Oak Creek in Gillespie County, nine miles west of Fredericksburg in 1851, imported French millstones and designed equipment for a steam operated mill.
Floods almost destroyed the Fredericksburg mill during construction, but Guenther rebuilt and was subsequently successful enough to expand his system to grind wheat and corn for area farmers. Still, Guenther wrote to his mother on August 22, 1859:
...I have decided to travel to San Antonio in two days and find a better location for my steam and water powered mill. San Antonio has now 10,000 inhabitants and only one very meager water mill. I have been to San Antonio once or twice every year and have often remarked that there is real need for a good mill.
Bibliography
Bird's Eye View Map. San Antonio, 1873.
Burkholder, Mary V. The King William Area; A Historv and Guide to the Houses. San Antonio: The King William Assn., 1973.
Chabot, Frederick. With the Makers of San Antonio. San Antonio: Artes Graficas, 1937
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.