The historic Emma Hotel in San Antonio Texas started life as the largest mid-19th century brewery in Texas. The story behind the brewery and its remarkable success, involve “mistresses and murder”, of the founder Otto Kohler and the Hotels namesake , his wife Emma.
We were fortunate to have been contracted to supply two king size antique iron beds for their premier suites, by the design team at Roman and Williams, who assisted in the amazing transformation from brewery to a Five Star Hotel. It’s rated one of the most beautiful in the country.
Before becoming a hotel, Hotel Emma was an American brewery established in 1881 as the J.B. Behloradsky Brewery.[4] In 1883, the San Antonio Brewing Association acquired the company.[5] By 1916, Pearl was the largest brewery in Texas and the only brewery to survive Prohibition.[6] In 2001, the brewery officially closed. In 2002, Silver Ventures, Inc. acquired the property.
Hotel Emma is named after Emma Koehler, wife of Pearl President Otto Koehler. Following the death of her husband in 1914, Emma took over as Pearl’s CEO.[7] Emma kept the brewery doors open during Prohibition by expanding business lines to encompass auto repair, soft drinks, ice cream and dry cleaning. This prevented the brewery from closing, and saved hundreds of people from losing their jobs. Although she retired in 1933, Emma remained active behind the scenes in Pearl operations until her death in 1947.
We at Cathouse Antique Iron Beds would like to thank all the designers at Roman and Williams for allowing us to be a small part of their incredible restoration of the Emma.
